Quaking aspen is found all over
Once upon a time I lived in the mountains of central New Mexico. A favorite autumn adventure was heading to higher elevations for the annual Aspencade celebration. With a bit of luck, the event would coincide with the turning of the aspen leaves from green to pure gold, shimmering against the background of a bright blue sky.
Back then I thought aspen trees grew only in the mountains. Imagine my surprise upon moving to the Midwest to find aspen trees on the plains, too. Turns out, quaking aspen ( Populus tremuloides) is actually the most widely distributed tree species in North America. It’s native to all but a few of the 49 continental states, the exceptions being in the South. According to a government database, the density of aspen trees is actually greatest in the Midwest states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, plus Colorado and Alaska.
This amazingly winter-hardy species grows throughout Canada, too.
Aspens appreciate full sun but aren’t at all picky about soil. They grow just fine in sand, clay or gravel, although they can get stressed without adequate moisture.
Is quaking aspen a good choice for your yard? It depends on your space. Aspens tend to produce suckers that can develop into a whole colony. That’s a good thing if you’re looking for a windbreak, not so good if the shoots are invading your garden.
In “Native Trees for North American Landscapes” (Timber Press, 2014), author Guy Sternberg says you can eliminate much of the suckering if you protect the original tree from stress and injury. (If you doubt that suckering could be affected by injury, just look at the aspens that rebound after a forest fire; new shoots quickly spring up to form a dense thicket.)
On the other hand, suckering can be a blessing. Continual new sprouts keep your planting perennially young if you periodically remove older stems and allow only healthy and vigorous new suckers to remain.
Like their close relatives, the cottonwoods, aspens seem susceptible to more than their share of diseases. Here in the Midwest, aspens have to cope with more heat and humidity than they’d face if living in the mountains. A Nebraska selection named Prairie Gold offers better resistance to leaf-spot diseases. Introduced through the efforts of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, J. Frank Schmidt Nursery and nurseryman Todd Faller, Prairie Gold grows into a narrow, upright oval, about 40 feet tall and 15 feet wide. Its medium-green leaves turn a spectacular golden-yellow in autumn.
Faller says that Prairie Gold is fast growing, especially when young.