Quaking Wild

When I first moved West in the 1970s I fell in love with aspen trees. They symbolized wildness and spontaneity, new adventures and breaking away from entrenched paths.

My youthful anthropomorphizing aside, it’s hard not to like an aspen grove with its fluttering leaves and tall white trunks. Apparently, many species feel the same. Almost 200 species are supported by aspen groves!

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is the widest ranging tree in America. It is in the Willow Family along with cottonwoods, poplars and of course, willows. Entire groves are actually the same being. They reproduce b...