The Trees of Vermont 65 



SALICACEAE 



Anierioan Aspen. Trembling' Poplar. Popple 



Populus tremuloides Miclix. 



Habit. — A small, slender tree generally 35-45 feet high, with a 

 trunk diameter of 8-15 inches; forming a loose, rounded crown of 

 slender branches. 



Leaves. — Alternate, simple, 1^-2^^ inches long and broad; 

 broadly ovate to suborbicular ; finely serrate ; thin and firm ; lustrous, 

 dark green above, dull and pale beneath ; petioles slender, laterally 

 compressed. Tremulous with the slightest breeze. 



Flowers. — April, before the leaves; dioecious; the staminate cat- 

 kins 1^-3 inches long, the pistillate at first about the same length, 

 gradually elongating; calyx 0; corolla 0; stamens 6-12; stigmas 2, 

 2-lobed, red. 



Fruit. — May-June ; 2-valved, oblong-cylindrical, short-pedicelled 

 capsules ^4 hich long; seeds light brown, white-hairy. 



Winter-buds. — Terminal bud about 54 i^ch long, narrow-conical, 

 acute, red-brown, lustrous ; lateral buds often appressed. 



Bark. — Twigs very lustrous, red-brown, becoming grayish and 

 roughened by the elevated leaf-scars ; thin, yellowish or greenish and 

 smooth on the trunk, often roughened with darker, horizontal bands or 

 wart-like excrescences, becoming thick and fissured, almost black at 

 the base of old trunks. 



Wood. — Light, soft, weak, close-grained, not durable, light brown, 

 with thin, whitish sapwood. Page 229. 



Distribution. — Common throughout Vermont. 



Habitat. — Prefers moist, sandy soil and gravelly hillsides. 



Notes. — The most careless observer cannot have failed to notice 

 the leaves of the aspen continually trembling on the quietest summer 

 day. This tremulousness, indeed, has given name to the species. The 

 reason for it, as may be seen readily by examination of any leaf, lies 

 in the decidedly flattened structure of the leaf-stem or petiole. The 

 slender drooping catkins appear in early spring and the downy fruits 

 ripen in the latter part of May. The American aspen grows to a 

 medium size, and is the most widely distributed tree in North America, 

 extending from Labrador to Alaska, from Lower California to the 

 Atlantic coast '' 



