Outdoors Journal

Of all the tree species in North America, quaking aspen has the widest distribution. It is found from northern Alaska to Labrador, and south to Pennsylvania on into the alpine reaches of Mexico. Those long, flattened and flexible leafstalks make the silver-dollar-sized leaves flutter in the slightest breeze, creating a rustling serenade and a quivering appearance as if the tree is being viewed through hot, shimmering air. From this arose the two popular names for Populus tremuloides, "quaking" and "trembling" aspen. The leaves are dark green in summer and turn golden yellow in the fall.

Aspens superficially resemble paper birches, with which they often grow in association, but aspen bark does not naturally peel. The quaking aspen is recognizable by its smooth trunk with a creamy green look on younger trees, becoming fissured and dark in mature trees.

For us humans, the quaking aspen is a major pulpwood species. In nature this species plays an important role in the lives of many organisms. About 500 species of animals and plants, from bears to lowly fungi, utilize them. The bark is a favorite food of the beaver, and branches and trunks help form the main structural elements of beaver dams. Ruffed grouse eat quaking aspen buds in the winter, snowshoe hares and white-tailed deer dine on the twigs, and moose and porcupines feast on the foliage.