neW roles for naTure^131Although the cultivation of new species was pioneered in the grounds of
the wealthy, some were soon taken up by farmers and even cottagers. The
Lombardy poplar (Populus nigra Italica) features in many of Constable’s
paintings of the countryside around the Suffolk/Essex border, growing
in hedges, beside rivers and close to farm houses. It was introduced from
northern Italy only in 1758 and it is a surprise to see it looking so much at
home in ‘Constable Country’. In 1808 William Wood, a painter of landscapes
and miniatures by profession but a dabbler in landscape design, prepared
proposals for improving the park at Shrubland Hall near Coddenham, not
far away. These included extensive planting of Lombardy poplars, a tree
whose reputation had suffered, he suggested, because it had been widely
planted beside the homes of ‘the vulgar inhabitants’.^97
Most introductions, even if – like the Lombardy poplar – widely planted in
the countryside, did not become naturalized there. But a number were more
successful, although possibly only after several decades or even centuries. The
Turkey oak, introduced from Anatolia in 1735, was first recorded in the wild
at the start of the twentieth century but its expansion since, especially on acid
soils, makes it hard to believe it had not made itself at home in some places
rather earlier. It is not a welcome addition to our flora, supporting few species
of invertebrate and acting as host to the oak gall wasp, which infects native
oaks.^98 Evergreen or holm oak, another native of southern Europe, introduced
as early as c.1500, was widely established in the eighteenth century and first
recorded in the wild in 1862, and has likewise become an aggressive coloniser
in parts of southern England.^99 More serious is Rhododendron ponticum,
which was planted not only in gardens and parks but also – as game cover
- in estate woodland. It has since spread through woods and across heaths
and moors, carpeting the ground and suppressing the growth of other plants.
It has little value as a food plant to indigenous wildlife.^100
A large number of herbaceous exotics introduced in this period likewise
became naturalized, in some cases rapidly. Spring beauty (Claytonia
perfoliata) was introduced in the second half of the eighteenth century, and
by 1909 Amphlett and Rea were able to describe how it had ‘spread rapidly
over England since its first introduction not much more than a hundred years
ago’.^101 Some naturalized species were relatively harmless, such as woolly or
Grecian foxglove (Digitalis lantana), a native of Italy and the Balkans which
was introduced in 1798, and is now widespread in woodland. But others
were a serious threat to indigenous species. The hottentot fig, introduced
in the seventeenth century and noted in the wild by the second half of the
nineteenth, is a succulent with yellow flowers found especially on the coast
of south-west England. It spreads vegetatively so that a single individual can
colonize an area 50 metres across, completely displacing the native flora.
Also harmful is the floating water fern (Azolla filiculoides), introduced in
the first half of the nineteenth century to garden ponds and established in
the wild by the 1850s.^102 It forms a dense mat of vegetation on the surface,
shading out suspended algae and submerged plants, causing deoxygenation