2021 tree following 1: New year, old tree

Part of the new tree I am following – recognise it?

It’s a new year and like many of you I have chosen a different tree to follow after a reasonably successful 2020 with the Persian ironwood in my own back garden.

Although we are still more or less locked down thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, I have resolved to take a walk most days for exercise and choosing a tree to follow in a park at least gets me walking once a month.

This time the park is Victoria Park and going to visit my tree on a frosty but sunny day earned me 4,700 steps there and back on my exercise counter.

Now without further ado, here is the tree…

My new subject for 2021 is the tall tree in the middle of this picture – against the western boundary of Victoria Park

The tree viewed from the sunny south side and from the east

Top of the tree from the east…

… and from the south

Have you identified it yet? I did guess the species when I visited the park in September (here) and saw its diamond-shaped leaves and columnar habit. But Cardiff Council’s plant guide confirmed it for me.

This is a Lombardy poplar, Populus nigra ‘Italica’ . It is a cultivar of the black poplar, what the Americans would call a cottonwood.

Looking up at the tree

The thick and textured trunk

The base – I must remember next time to take a picture of the buttressed base on the other side, which seemed so obvious when I visited in September

Moss and lichen on the bark…

…and more of the same

It’s a very old tree

Another council web page (here) tells me more about the tree – it has been measured at up to 32 metres tall and with a girth of 4.28 metres in 2017.

I had read on Wikipedia that the species is dioecious, wind-pollinated, with male and female flowers on different plants. The council page tells me it is a male tree, bearing red catkins in mid spring. I must look out for them. Sadly I guess it means I will never see any cottony seed-tufts on this particular specimen.

Shady side of the tree

Branches over the spiked fence of the park

The new season’s leaf buds…

…very pointed and slightly red

The roots of the poplar are invasive and this – looking like a flattened cow-pat – is one of the roots a few feet from the base of the tree

There is always rubbish – this Sherbet fountain wrapper was among the dead leaves under the tree

A last look, across football goal posts and frosty grass towards the magnificent Lombardy poplar

You can find my other Lombardy poplar postings here…

I am looking forward to watching this tree through the seasons – see you all in February…