Black Poplar

THE NATIVE BLACK POPLAR (Populus nigra betulifolia)

The native black poplar, Populus nigra betulifolia, is a rare British tree which until recently had been almost forgotten by foresters and naturalists for 150 years.

Populus nigra is native to most of central and southern Europe and parts of Asia.

The subspecies betulifolia is confined to northern France, parts of western Germany, southern Britain and parts of Ireland.

The native black poplar lapsed from being a useful producer of materials for the agricultural community before 1800 into almost complete obscurity by the mid twentieth century.

The timber was used for wagon bottoms and stable partitions and even buffers on early railway carriages because it can withstand shock loads well.

Material from pollards was used in basket making and for stakes, rails, scaffold poles and rafters. Smaller material was used for faggots for burning in ovens. Early summer shoots were cut from pollards and dried for winter fodder.

Its existence today is almost entirely due to its economic value in the medieval economy and its ability to regenerate from fallen trees, branches and damaged roots in the few relict riverside sites where it survives.

Originally a tree of flood plains and river banks, the natural habitat of the native black poplar has practically disappeared, largely destroyed by river drainage works.

So many different poplar hybrids have been planted in Britain during the last two hundred years that no forester, nurseryman or botanist can be expected to identify them all. To confuse the issue, the native tree displays a degree of variation or plasticity as well.

But the distinctive shape and large size of the native black poplar - often growing alone by a farm in a lowland English river valley - are a give-away to anyone familiar with it.

Many species of tree have both male and female flowers on the same plant - they are called monoecious. But black poplar is dioecious - individual trees are either male or female. There are only a few hundred female trees in Britain and not many of these are growing alongside males. Natural seedlings are virtually unknown.

The best known variety of the European black poplar is the Lombardy poplar.

Markets for most of the above have disappeared or are now supplied by substitutes but apart from being a magnificent fast-growing landscape tree, the native black poplar may have a bright future for figured veneer production.

But the future of our native type of black poplar has improved. The Great Black Poplar Hunt of the 1990s raised awareness and enlisted the public's help to track down remaining specimens and record them.

Organisations like The Black Poplar Working Group pooled resources and encouraged wider production and planting of genuine native stock. And the RFS wood at Battram in the National Forest boasts a plot of native black poplar.