Finding our local native Black Poplars
Wharf Stream Veteran Black Poplar.
Native black-poplars, Populus nigra ssp. betulifolia (vernacular name: Water poplar) are confined largely to the lowland floodplains of Britain, northern France and western Germany. In Britain there are only about 7000 in the entire country. They have fallen off the radar, so much so that in the 1962 Atlas of British flora, they were lumped together with ‘Italian blacks’. They are majestic of tress, growing over 100 feet and living for over 200 years.
We would like to locate as many as we can locally, but there are difficulities in identifiying the native species, because most of the black poplars we see are actually hybrids.
The NRN is hoping we can find more native spcimens locally, so we can protect and propagate them - read on to discover more about one of our rarest trees.