The nature reserve has an area of 8.6 hectares and is located in the southwest of Mannheim on the right bank of the Rhine. It belongs to the forest park with the shredding island, which is also under protection. The name goes back to a 250-year-old silver poplar, which was struck by lightning at the beginning of the 20th century and was so damaged in the harsh winter of 1928-29 that it did not recover and had to be felled in 1936. The nature reserve includes a regularly flooded alluvial forest with an old Rhine Schlute ("Hagbau"), which flows parallel to the Rhine. In the lower Weichholzaue grow in the bank area basket, purple and mown pastures, which turns into a silver willow forest with silver and black poplars. In the higher Hartholzaue there is a pedunculate oak-elm forest. The area is habitat for the water bat, kingfisher and common toad. To preserve the floodplain with the Schlute as a habitat of endangered animal and plant species, the nature reserve was designated in 1983.
