There are more than 7,000 trees in Alexandra Park and our resident expert, Stephen Middleton from The Friends of Alexandra Park, is introducing us to some of this favourites.
Large, impressive, but sometimes precarious looking trees, with mostly white bark line one side of the path coming up from the Lower Road by the Fairground Car Park to link to the entrance to the Paddock Car Park. The trees themselves sometimes rise up straight, but often lean. Our Tree of the Month is the Grey Poplar (Populus x canescens) and our particular example is the right hand sloping tree of a pair about midway along the path.
This poplar is generally thought to be a naturally occurring hybrid of the aspen (a sort of native poplar) and the white poplar. It is fast growing and grows taller than both of its parents – up to about 35m.
Poplars are in the same family as the willows and like them all poplar trees are either male or female. Our particular tree is male like most of the grey poplars grown in this country. This can be seen from the catkins produced. The male catkins start off with a bright red colour which fades. The female catkins on nearby trees are green and will later produce seed after being wind pollinated from their male counterparts.
Look around at the base of these trees and you can see that they sucker quite easily, sending up young leaves which usually are more similar to the white poplar leaves having a downy covering and maple-like shape. They later lose their hairiness and start to more resemble the aspen which has more rounded leaves.
The bark of the grey poplar starts off smooth and white when young then with increasing numbers of diamond shaped lenticels (breathing holes) and gradually the bark becomes more furrowed. This is particularly noticeable at the base of this tree where you can see the transition in appearance.
The grey poplar is mainly used as an ornamental tree, but the wood from our Tree of the Month is a lightweight wood and has been used for silk rollers as well as barn doors and wood panelling.
At this time of year it is a pleasure to gaze on the explosion of colour of the pink cherries just below the Palace which often attracts photographers and instagram posters.
