It was once such a common sight that it features in many classic paintings of the English countryside -- John Constable's The Hay Wain is one example. It was so useful for building and scaffolding that it was habitually planted near farms and developing villages. The shaped lower branches were especially prized for cruck frames.

    Its toughness made it a favourite of waggonmakers, bowl turners and fletchers -  a Black Poplar in Portsmouth has been established as the descendant of one used to make arrows for the armoury of the warship Mary Rose (McKee, 1982).

    Its  mysterious, gnarly look gave it a spiritual attraction, too. In some parts of the country it was the subject of tree-dressing ceremonies dating back centuries, and whose origins are now unknown.

    But the black poplar has a problem -- it needs very specialised conditions in which to propagate.

    Seeds need to lie undisturbed on bare, wet mud or silt from June to October to germinate successfully - conditions that became harder to find as Britain grew more industrialised and more heavily populated.

   As the need for native timber as a building resource dwindled and fewer Black Poplars were planted, this propagation difficulty became more important. An added complication was that only male trees had generally been planted - females were considered a nuisance because of the drifting white down they produce.

   By the beginning of this decade only about a thousand trees were known to have survived ....not enough to guarantee the survival of the species.