The Lovely Tree Called the Quaking Aspen

Most people have seen this tree, usually in thickets. They are a tree that buds out early and generally lives where water is close to the surface of the land. This is a useful trait, because early settlers in America sometimes found themselves in dry, inhospitable country, without water to drink. However, if they could find a stand of aspen, they would know that they could dig down only a dozen feet or so and find water.

This is a tree that grows rapidly. It is sometimes called trembling aspen, mountain aspen, golden aspen or white poplar. The last is because it is a member of the poplar or cottonwood family, which also means that they are related to the willows. The trunks can sometimes be several feet in diameter and quaking aspen often grow in excess of 50 feet in height. Occasional specimens exceed 80 feet, with the trunks tending to be straight and unbranching.

The bark of this tree is white to light gray, mottled here and there with darker, horizontal patches. The leaves are more or less triangular in shape and each leaf has a limber stem that allows it to move and flutter in the slightest breeze. It is from this trait that this tree gets both it’s common and scientific name. In a breeze, the tree does rather look as if it is quaking or trembling. The scientific name is Populus tremuloides, the species name again alluding to the movement of the leaves.

In the fall, the leaves turn yellow, gold or occasionally red, giving lots of color to the forest before the leaves finally fall to the ground for winter.

The flowers are arranged in catkins and these appear before the tree puts out leaves, in the early spring. The seeds are embedded in cottony fluff, rather like those of cottonwoods in general.

One thing that is a bit unusual about this tree is that it propagates mostly by root runners. The tree produces runners that periodically put up another tree that is a clone of the original. Very few quaking aspens begin as seeds. This means that when you see a stand of aspen, chances are that you are actually seeing a single plant that can cover many acres. 

In fact, here is an interesting point of trivia: The largest single organism on Earth is an aspen. It is located in Utah and although it has the appearance of being an aspen grove, it is actually a single plant. This plant covers 106 acres and the total weight of this single organism is estimated at over 6,500 tons or 13,000,000 pounds. It is unknown how long this aspen has been alive, but it is likely that it is many thousands of years old; at least in excess of 10,000 years. It just isn’t counted as the world’s oldest tree, since it clones itself.

Because of its vigorous growth and love of water, this tree is a major player when it comes to lake and forest succession. It gives way to firs and pines.

Despite not having thick bark, this tree is also resistant to forest fires. The leaves, buds and inner bark all have medicinal properties that were taken advantage of by the American Indians. This is in keeping with being related to willows. Aspens are also found in both North America and Europe.

This is a beautiful tree and it is one of my favorites. I love the rustling sound it makes in the summer when a breeze gets the leaves moving about. It is a commonly grown tree in yards in America. In the picture above, the yellows on the far side of the lake are partly from quaking aspen. What can’t be seen in the image is that directly behind me when I took the picture, there is a large stand of quaking aspens. The picture was taken in Oregon.