Summer Snow in Stratford? A rarity in our midst!

June 2025 KMOC

The Black Poplar, Populus nigra, is scarce (about 7,000 in UK, mostly in the south). It likes having wet feet so it is happy here by the footbridge linking the Devizes Road to Mill Lane.

As Britain and especially the south gets drier, it will become even rarer. As 19 out of 20 native Black poplars are male, this means there are only a few hundred females.

They produce copious cotton-wool-like seeds which here on some days can carpet the footbridge in apparent summer snow.