If the wind is blowing, Quaking Aspens will “speak to you.” Romantics call them Trembling Aspens, identified by round, alternate, and simple leaves with green above and paler lower surfaces – easily moved by the wind. The bark of younger trees is greenish white, with older trees having brown to black fissures and ridges against white bark. Leaves in the Autumn may be red, orange, green and/or yellow. Aspen often grows as a “colony tree” sharing roots with many stems. Individual and colony aspen are planted along the streams in the Gardens; if they change color at the same time, they share common roots! Aspen used to be more common around the Farm, but they aren’t easily reseeded (since shared root systems are one sex); like Madrona, Hawthorn, Oak, Pacific Yew, and many trees, they have given way to Douglas Fir plantations in most of the Northwest. We think them perhaps the prettiest of NW trees. A member of the Salicaceae Family, they grow by Kiosk 15.  Pilchuck Learning Center’s sponsored Western Washington State University SAM Project extinction possibility is close to zero/impossible; found in other areas of North America (perhaps the most widespread tree from sea to sea to shining sea … Pacific, Arctic, and Atlantic Oceans).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populus_tremuloides
http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=Populus+tremuloides
https://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kiosk-15.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIhjMhaFRVc
https://burkeherbarium.org/imagecollection/taxon.php?Taxon=Populus%20tremuloides
https://www.sciencealert.com/haunting-sounds-made-from-the-worlds-largest-living-thing-recorded

Of all the leaved trees along the West Coast, the most widespread is the:

Aspen
Black Hawthorne
Vine Maple

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