So, Claire from the Wildlife Trust mentioned that she thought there was a Black Poplar on the Reserve closest to my house. So I took a run to check out this rumour.
I knew there were some other Poplars - maybe a White and some Aspens or Hybrids. But then I saw this absolute giant set back from the track.
I navigated some fallen trees and kids' dens and got close. The trunk is so huge that I think it would take four people, at least, arms outstretched, to encircle it!
I managed to gather some leaves, but remain a little sceptical. The youngest leaves bear a slight Play-Doh scent, like the darker leaved trees in the copse - not like my favourite tree and its Lemon Sherbet scent. And they don't seem quite as long-pointed as I think the Black Poplar's leaves should be. They look the same as the trees in the copse.
Even so, what an age! I didn't know they could get this big - even the ones at the vet's are nowhere near as vast as this specimen.
Later that evening, I was walking along a row of what may be Lombardy Poplars and I saw that the leaves on shoots coming low down on the trunk of the tree were completely didfferent from the leaves at the top.
The leaves at the top, you'll have to take my word for it, are the common heart-shape.
But the lower leaves are hugely long.
I couldn't believe that they came from the same tree.
The next day, I visited my tree.
The copse is in a sad state.
The leaves withered and falling.
The bark of the big tree are like mountain ranges from high, high above. Poplars don't make it easy to be identified! I wonder why several trees are dying in the copse?