Beautiful large tree, but root suckers are aggressive and wood is weak, similar to aspen. Some cultivars are available, but plant only in large, open areas where a troublesome tree will be less trouble.
Golden fall color is occasionally nice. Zones Leaves: Ovate to ovate-lanceolate; rounded base and angled; 3" to 6" long, 3" to 4" wide; acute to acuminate apex; rounded base; finely serrate margin; dark green above, paler beneath; petiole round, slender, long. Buds resinous, sticky, and fragrant in spring. Bark: Grayish-green to yellowish-gray and smooth early on; darker gray-brown with ridges and furrows when mature. Wood: Heartwood light-brown to grayish-white; sapwood whitish; relatively straight-grained and uniform-textured; odorless when dried, shrinkage moderately high; soft, relatively weak and brittle, branch structure also weak; fuzzy surface tension wood makes it hard to work with; difficult to split; used for wood pulp, boxes, crates, containers, implements, woodenware, barrels, trunks, and drawers.
General: Some sources show this as native to extreme northern Utah; at any rate uncommon. Bark: Light green, smooth on young trunks; on older trunks thick, gray, deeply furrowed with flat-topped ridges.
General: Native from about the Wasatch Front south including lower-elevation river drainages Green and Colorado in southern Utah and throughout the Southwest. Usually found naturally along streams. Landscape Use: Rarely used and cultivars are not available, but it is a good, large cottonwood that would be worth having in the right setting. Aspen poplar flowers are wind-pollinated. Spring winds, unhampered by tree leaves, carry pollen from male catkins to female catkins on another tree.
The pollen fertilizes the ovules in the female catkins and seeds result. The seeds are carried by the wind. Hairs on the seeds help carry them on their airborne journeys, up to 30 km 20 mi. However, the seeds are viable only for a short period, from three days to three weeks.
They require bare, wet soil for successful germination. They reproduce mainly by growing shoots suckers from the large root system. The resulting colonies or clones, some as old as years, can easily be identified in spring or fall because all the trees in a clone are genetically identical. They all flower, leaf out and drop their leaves at the same time. Aspen flowers and leafs out early in the growing season, and full bloom of aspen can be used to define the biological start of early spring.
Prairie crocus often starts blooming at the same time aspen does. Aspen poplar groves provide important wildlife habitat. The bark and leaves of this tree are the favourite food of beavers, which use the branches to build their lodges and dams.
Young twigs and leaves are browsed by hoofed animals such as deer, moose and elk. Aspen is one of the top six favourite non-aquatic foods for moose. When other food supplies are low, these mammals will eat the bark. Snowshoe hares eat the bark, and grouse eat the winter buds. This species is fast-growing but lives only a short time, up to 80 — years.
It regenerates quickly after fire or tree cutting by suckers from roots near the surface of the ground. Thus, aspen is an important fire-successional species in the boreal forest.
Aspen matures in 60 — 80 years, and succession is often to white spruce as long as there is adequate soil moisture. Forest fire is an important element in the establishment and maintenance of aspen stands.
Aspen poplar forests appear to be stable communities that dominate large areas of the landscape. In fact, they are really transitional communities dependent on frequent fire for establishment and rejuvenation.
Hybrid: yes. Catkins: yes. Fall colour: brilliant yellow. Growth rate: very fast. Growth rate: fast. Life span: short. Maintenance: low. Maintenance: medium. Suckering: high. Pollution tolerance: high. Pollution tolerance: low. In row spacing: 2. Between row spacing: 5 m 16 ft. Other Names: balm of gilead, jacks aspen, jacks hybrid poplar. The major differences in appearance between the three species are in the leaf margins edges , bark color and texture.
As the name suggests, bigtooth aspen has large, coarse irregular dentate shaped teeth along the margin of its heart-shaped deltoid leaves. Quaking aspen has smaller heart-shaped to circular orbicular leaves with fine serrate teeth on the edges. Balsam poplar leaves are quite variable across its range but in general they are egg-shaped ovate or more narrowly spear-shaped lanceolate with very small teeth along the leaf margin.
All three species develop thin smooth bark which becomes fissured and furrowed with age. Quaking aspen bark is described as white or greenish-white while the bark of bigtooth aspen has a definite green to greenish-brown hue. Balsam poplar bark is quite variable depending on the site but generally begins as a greenish to reddish-brown becoming grey to grayish-black with age. The seedlings which do germinate depend on a ring of fine hairs for absorptive functions and to anchor themselves to the soil substrate until the germinant develops a more substantial rooting body known as the radicle.
Once established, the first year seedling can grow 6 to 12 inches tall, extend its taproot 8 to 10 inches deep and develop a lateral root system 12 to 16 inches long.
Rapid height growth continues as the seedlings mature and by year 4 or 5 they typical reach breast height 4.
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