In the French Revolutionary Calendar today is the Day of the Poplar Tree. Here are 10 things you might not know about these trees:
- They belong to the Willow family and make up the genus Populus, which has around 30 species including black poplar, white poplar, cottonwood and aspen.
- The genus gets its name from the fact that poplars were often planted around public meeting places in Roman times.
- One characteristic of trees of this family is that their leaves tremble in the breeze. This is because the leaves have flat stems.
- The oldest easily identifiable fossil of this genus belongs to Poplus wilmattae, and comes from the Late Paleocene.
- The first tree to have its DNA fully sequenced was a poplar, a western balsam poplar to be exact, in 2006.
- They can form huge colonies from a single original tree. The famous Pando forest in Utah is made of thousands of Populus tremuloides clones.
- The Greeks and Etruscans made shields from poplar, as recommended by Pliny the Elder. The wood was as durable as Oak, but considerably lighter. It was also used extensively by renaissance Italian artists as a painting surface. The Mona Lisa was painted on poplar wood.
- Today, the uses of poplar wood include musical instruments such as electric guitars, Drums, violas or harps; snowboards, because it’s flexible; anything that requires cheap wood, such as cheese boxes, wooden Shoes, pallets and chopsticks; it’s also used to make Paper.
- The Poplar Field by William Cowper and Binsey Poplars felled 1879 by Gerard Manley Hopkins are two well known poems about poplar trees. They also feature in the lyrics of the song Strange Fruit: “Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze/Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees…”
- In Ukrainian folklore the poplar symbolises the beauty or loneliness of a woman in love.
New Year New Reading Challenge?
I can help. Here are links to books which meet potential criteria:
A title with three words
- Death and Faxes
- Killing Me Softly
- Settling the Score
- Secrets and Skies
- Over the Rainbow
- Closing the Circle
A title with six words
A book with a number in the title
A book with a colour in the title
Short story collections/A book with a green cover
A book published in the last year/during lockdown
A book you can finish in a day/A book under 200 pages
A book featuring characters from a deck of cards
A Book set during Christmas
A book with a place in the title
A Debut novel
A book with a plant or flower on the cover/A book about siblings
A book with a female villain or criminal
Includes space travel
Features Royalty
Books featuring skiing or snowboarding
A book with the Olympic games in it
A book with a bird in the title
A book featuring a secret society
A book featuring time travel/alternative dimensions
Raiders Trilogy:
Books featuring superheroes
Books featuring ghosts
From an Indie Publisher/Self published/An author you've not read before/A female author/A genre you wouldn't normally read/A book outside your comfort zone/A book by an author with your initials and your initials are JH
All of them!
More details can be found here
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