Flowering Trees & Shrubs Codexery

Populus tremuloides

A widely distributed North American tree known for clonal groves.

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The leaves are green above and gray below, and young trees have much larger, nearly triangular leaves.[1] Aspens are dioecious, with separate male and female clones.[2] Quaking aspen grows more slowly in dry western North America than in the humid east and lives longer, with ages of 80–100 years typical.[3] Across North America, from Canada down to central Mexico, Populus tremuloides has the broadest distribution of any tree.[4]

Mature trees have leaves that are almost round, measuring 4–6 cm across, and a flattened petiole that is 3–7 cm long.[3] The fruit is a hanging chain of capsules, each 6 mm in size, and each capsule holds about ten tiny seeds surrounded by cottony fluff.[2] Seed production can start in trees as young as 2–3 years, but a substantial amount of seeds is not produced until the tree is 10 years old.[2] The leaves quake because the petioles are flexible and flattened, which makes the leaves twist when the wind blows.[5]

Scientific classification

  1. CladeTracheophytes
  2. CladeAngiosperms
  3. CladeEudicots
  4. CladeRosids
  5. OrderMalpighiales
  6. FamilySalicaceae
  7. GenusPopulus
  8. GenusPopulus
  9. SpeciesPopulus tremuloides

Named by Michx.

Close relatives

Other species of Populus with a Codexery entry.

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Populus tremuloides (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Conservation status

Least Concern (LC)

  1. LC▲ this species
  2. NT
  3. VU
  4. EN
  5. CR
  6. EW
  7. EX
Population trend
Not held in our sources — see the assessment
Assessment published
2018

Source: IUCN Red List assessment · GBIF copy of the Red List category

How big is it?

Size comparison: Populus tremuloides and a personA 0.06 m long populus tremuloides drawn to scale next to a 1.8 m tall person. Schematic shapes, not a likeness.0.06 m1.8 m

Largest length in the source, 0.06 m, next to a 1.8 m person.

Diagram: drawn by Codexery, schematic shapes to scale (not a likeness). Length: Wikipedia: Populus tremuloides

Where the populus tremuloides has been recorded

Where the populus tremuloides has been recorded8 mapped locations from 62,904 GBIF occurrence records

Each dot is a place where the species has been observed and reported (62,904 records, half-degree grid) — not a modelled range. 492 inland records left out (institution coordinates).

Map: drawn by Codexery. Data: GBIF occurrence search (records CC0 / CC BY) · Natural Earth basemap (public domain)

What the specialist sources record

The Bryce Canyon National Park Service notes that aspens can be identified by their smooth, white bark marked by black scars where lower branches are self-pruned.[6] The North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox states that fall foliage is a beautiful yellow and that Native Americans used this plant as a food source.[7] According to the National Forest Foundation, the clonal colony Pando covers 43 hectares and has a mass of six million kilograms.[8] The Pando seed is believed by most scientists to have germinated between 8,000 and 12,000 years ago, at the close of the last ice age.[9]

The North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox notes that cultivated quaking aspens are hardy in USDA zones 1 through 6.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Populus tremuloides" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Arno, "Northwest Trees: Identifying & Understanding the Region's Native Trees", Mountaineers Books, 2020, p. 203–208 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Populus tremuloides" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Quaking Aspen by the Bryce Canyon National Park Service (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Populus tremuloides" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Arno, "Northwest Trees: Identifying & Understanding the Region's Native Trees", Mountaineers Books, 2020, p. 203–208; Arno, "Northwest Trees: Identifying & Understanding the Region's Native Trees", Mountaineers Books, 2020, p. 203–208 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Populus tremuloides" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; "Aspen, Quaking (Populus tremuloides)", Arbor Day Foundation (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Populus tremuloides" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Populus tremuloides – Purdue Arboretum Explorer" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Quaking Aspen by the Bryce Canyon National Park Service. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov
  7. NCE, "Populus tremuloides (Quaking Aspen)", North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, n.d.. facts only, no text reused. plants.ces.ncsu.edu
  8. Wikipedia, "Populus tremuloides" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Pando: Documenting a Tree That Redefines What a Tree Can Be", National Forest Foundation (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "Pando: Documenting a Tree That Redefines What a Tree Can Be", National Forest Foundation. facts only, no text reused. nationalforests.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Populus tremuloides" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: NCE, "Populus tremuloides (Quaking Aspen)", North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, n.d. (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Populus tremuloides (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Related entries

Named in this entry

Populus

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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