Populus alba L., White Poplar

Introduced, neophyte, deliberately planted, rare, but under-recorded.

21 August 1986; McMullin, A.S., Corbett, P. & Phillips, J.C.L.; Inisherk Island, Crom Castle Estate.

August to October.

The leaves of White Poplar are very decorative, presenting strongly contrasting upper and lower surfaces − dark glossy green on the upper side and startlingly white-tomentose below. The tree or large shrub is made all the more attractive since like the native Aspen (Populus tremula), the leaves very readily flutter in the breeze. This appearance sufficiently recommends the species for planting, and it is popular in parks and for amenity planting around public buildings and on roadside embankments, in both urban and more rural settings. Less frequently, it is seen on the boundaries of larger private gardens, most probably on account of the deserved notoriety all poplars have for suckering abundantly and for producing roots that seek out and block drains and sewer pipes. It grows best in damp to wet situations, in heavy soil unlikely to dry out in summer, or in ground near water.

The New Atlas hectad map indicates that P. alba is very much more frequently planted and widespread in lowland Britain than is the case in Ireland. Its Irish use is only occasional and scattered, and in Fermanagh P. alba appears only rarely, around large demesnes (eg on the Crom Castle Estate), or in fairly recent landscape plantings in the grounds of public buildings. Examples of the latter occur at the Lakeland Forum and at Chanterhill, both in Enniskillen town, and again in amenity planting around Rosslea village. There are just seven records in six tetrads included in the Fermanagh Flora Database and they all date between 1986 and 1990.

We are certain P. alba is being simply ignored by recorders on account of the species always being deliberately planted and of little or no interest to the naturalist since it fails to naturalise in the wild. Virtually all the White Poplar trees in B & I are female, the catkins appearing in February long before the leaves emerge. Thus the trees fail to set seed.

The species is regarded in B & I as a fairly early tree introduction of unknown date, but most likely post-1500. Very possibly it arrived with us from Holland (ie in status, it is a 'neophyte'). P. alba is widely distributed in temperate C & SE Europe and eastwards into C Asia. However, even within this range, in many areas it is an obvious planted introduction, so that the natural distribution of the species has become obscured (Meikle 1984; Brendell 1990).