Remember the Alamo

Where did you get that hat?

Growing up as a boy in the 1950's rarely a day went by without me hearing mention of that famous cowboy Davy Crockett. The Walt Disney film, released in 1955, was big news in the UK and Crockett could be seen on TV on a regular basis, the programme being introduced by refrains of the Ballad of Davy Crockett - was it Tennessee Ernie Ford singing 'King of the wild frontier'? I can't remember, but, knowing the BBC, the version we heard on Uncle Mac's Childrens Favourites at the time was more likely to have been by Max Bygraves.  (Davy Crockett's March was another piece of music altogether.) However this post researches the connection between Davy Crockett and Poplar trees....???? Read on my friend!

I do wish they'd build that bridge!

Yup you've seen this before, it's The Haywain by John Constable - the cottage on the left still exits and is now a tourist attraction. But what no longer exist are the trees in the background. These are Black Poplars (populus nigra) of which very few examples still survive and it's Britain's most endangered native tree. North East Wales is home to a significant number of Black Poplars and there are over 200 mature specimens in the Vale of Clwyd. We recently walked past a stand of around half a dozen by the River Elwy in St Asaph and fine trees they are too.

50 foot tall at least - what do you think Skip?

Here is a healthy mature Black Poplar spotted by a footpath just off the main Ruthin Road in the middle of Denbigh. I'll keep my eye out for more in our neighbourhood! And there's a fine example of an English Shepherd Dog relaxing in the foreground - not many of those in this part of the world either. I was quite staggered to read a recent report with a story about the number of folk in Britain who know so little about trees, or nature in general, to the extent that less than one in five can identify a Hawthorn! Mind you we did have some Merseyside children walking past our smallholding some years ago who were quite surprised to find out that, what they had identified as a breed of dog, were in fact Oxford Sandy and Black pigs!


In the same way that a type of plane tree was planted widely in London (hence the name London Plane) as it was pollution resistant, Black Poplars were planted widely in Manchester a hundred years ago or so. They're not quite the same as our native poplar as they are a subspecies (the Manchester Poplar - populous nigra subsp.betifolia) that has recently been shown to be vulnerable to disease - they've survived the smoke and grime of the last century but are now disappearing fast from Manchester's streets and parks thanks to a nasty little fungus. And many of our limited number of existing native Black Poplars are reaching the end of their lives without being replaced. These glorious poplars (or 'alamo' as they're known in Spanish!) may soon be but a memory.

And here's Constable's famous painting with the poplars edited out -

Still no bridge eh? And no, this is not the River Elwy!

Footnote: Oh yes - about the title of this piece - to avoid (or create) confusion, the Spanish word for Poplar is 'alamo' whereas the Spanish for Elm is 'olmo'! In 1836 the Mexican army besieged the Alamo Mission in Texas (and killed Davy Crockett!) - the Alamo name may have come from the cottonwood trees that grew nearby, cottonwoods being a type of poplar tree. So there you have it!