The black poplar is a native tree in Berlin and a rare one, which is a combination worth pausing on. This one stands by a pond in Prenzlauer Berg, halfway along the path on the south shore of the Kreuzpfuhl, in the Jürgen-Kuczynski-Park. Berlin made it Naturdenkmal 3-16/B on 2 March 1993. Many of the city's protected trees are listed partly for regional heritage, for what they say about the place. This one was listed for its beauty and for natural-history reasons instead: for what it says about the species and the landscape rather than about the people around it. The pin is a good one. The register gives a point for the tree itself, and the Wikipedia list of Pankow's natural monuments gives its own coordinate about 40 metres away, which for two sources in a park is close agreement. Walk the south shore path and look for it near the middle. A poplar by water is in its element, and the Kreuzpfuhl is a pond ringed by a public park, free to walk around. It has no single day of glory. It is the kind of tree you come to because you know a native black poplar is a rare thing to find in Berlin. No source records its age, girth or height. If you have put a tape around the trunk, tell us what it comes to.
catkins on bare branches, red on the male treesfemale trees release their seed in cottony tuftsyellow
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Juergen-Kuczynski-Park, Kreuzpfuhl, middle of the south shore path You can recognise it as the black poplar halfway along the path on the south shore of the Kreuzpfuhl pond. It stands in the Jürgen-Kuczynski-Park, at the register's tree-level point.
Free; public park around the Kreuzpfuhl pond.
Tram M4 or S Landsberger Allee area; walk not measured
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.