Black Poplar

Description

Populus nigra subsp. Betulifolia

Shiny, green and heart-shaped, with long tips and a mild scent of balsam. Young leaves are covered in fine, tiny hairs, which they shed by autumn. Black poplar is dioecious, meaning male and female flowers are found on separate trees. Flowers are catkins (male catkins are red and female catkins are yellow-green), and are pollinated by the wind. Once fertilised, female catkins develop into fluffy cotton-like seeds, which fall in late summer.

Mature trees grow to 30m and can live for 200 years. The bark is dark brown but often appears black, and is thick with numerous fissures and burrs. Twigs are lumpy and brown in colour.

Black poplar is one of Britain and Ireland’s rarest trees and is an inhabitant of floodplains and wet ditches and was once a common sight in the countryside. John Constable’s familiar painting The Hay Wain of 1821 shows black poplar trees growing alongside a meandering river.