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Plant · P-145
Quaking Aspen
Populus tremuloides
Quaking Aspen is famous for leaves that flutter constantly in the slightest breeze, thanks to flattened leaf stems, turning gold in a striking autumn show above smooth, pale bark. It grows fast as a pioneer on bare or logged ground, but it is fundamentally a cold-climate, high-elevation tree, needing cool summers and struggling wherever heat and humidity persist for long. Its tiny Texas populations exist only as isolated relict stands above roughly 7,500 feet in a few mountain ranges, cooler and far wetter than the desert floor below them. The sap can be tapped and drunk like other members of its family, and its soft, light wood has traditionally gone into fencing, barn doors, and high-quality paper pulp.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 1–6
- Soil
- Sand · Silt · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate · Wet
Vertical layer
Canopy- Soil pH
- 5–8
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 40–50 ft
- Mature spread
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