SALICACEJE WILLOW FAMILY 



Populus tremuloides, Michx. 



March-May American Aspen, 



Quaking Aspen, 

 Quiver-leaf. 



Populus: Classical name of uncertain origin. 

 Tremuloides: Latin to signify tremulous in allusion to the 

 trembling of the leaves on their slender stems. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: edges of woods. 



THE TREE : slender, with smooth, light, green-brown bark. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; ovate or nearly round; when young 

 with no hairs above, shining, light green; when full grown 

 thin, dark green, and shining above, pale dull yellow-green 

 beneath; short-acuminate at the apex; sawed off or slightly 

 heart-shaped at the base; on very slender stems which are 

 flattened laterally on the margins; finely serrate and hairy 

 on the margins; net veined. 



THE FLOWERS: minute, borne in drooping catkins which 

 are one and a half to two inches long. 



THE FRUIT: capsule. 



Trees on Nantucket are not so numerous but what, by 

 process of elimination, they can easily be identified. The 

 distinctive quality of a poplar tree is in the leaf, which is 

 generally triangular in shape, disproportionately broad at 

 the base, acute at the apex, and more or less deeply 

 toothed or waved all around the edge. What distinguishes 

 the tremuloides from the other members of the genus is 

 the trembling of the leaves. This peculiar trembling is 

 due to the shape of the long, slender stem, which is "pinched 

 sideways, not flattened, and this compression being ver- 



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