Our local aspen’s botanical name is Populus tremuloides. In Latin populus means people or nation, which could refer to a stand, a “nation,” a grove of aspens. Tremuloides speaks to the way aspen leaves tremble in the winds.
It is a keystone species native to North America; the U.S. Forest Service says it’s the most widely distributed tree. Aspen also lives across the northern hemisphere in most of Europe and much of Asia, including China. NatureServe Explorer notes it is imperiled in its more polar reaches.
Botany
An aspen grove is a single root colony with suckers that become trunks. Each clone can live hundreds or up to thousands of years. The largest stand of trees on earth is a stand of aspens. Nicknamed Pando, meaning “I spread” in Latin, this grove covers over 100 acres in Utah, weighs 13 million pounds, and is at least 40,000 trees.
Traditional Human Uses of Aspen Trees
People have had a close relationship with aspens since humans began. Daniel Moerman’s Native American Ethnobotany database shows at least 45 Native American tribes spoke to researchers of some of their aspen uses. Bark and wood were and are made into hats, cordage, whistles, aspen knots used to make cups, cut branches used for fuel and building, branches on living trees used to make deadfall traps for bears. Horse thieves were said to rub sap on their bodies to disguise their human scent. Leaves, branches, and roots have been used ceremonially, hollowed logs made into drums. Roots have been carved into dolls for children and tourists. Aspen wood makes great bow drills.
Inner bark is said to be eaten raw, pounded it into flour for cooked cakes or boiled into noodles. People in Europe and Asia have eaten the inner bark similarly. It’s said to be high in Vitamin C. Aspen catkins have also long been a spring food.
Aspen splints have helped set broken bones and sprained ankles on humans and horses. Aspen has been used for heartburn, worm and wound medicine, gynecological and prostate troubles, syphilis, arthritis, coughs and colds. Burns and wounds have been soothed by an ointment made by boiling the buds in oil on low heat.
Aspen in Modern Herbalism
Aspen bark contains salicylates, from which is derived salicylic acid used to make aspirin. Aspen bark extract is sold commercially in the natural products business for cosmetic and personal care products such as sunscreen. The German Commission E Monographs, written for the German equivalent of the U.S. Federal register for plant drugs is an internationally respected guide to herbal therapeutics; our aspen species is approved for hemorrhoids, burns and wounds. Western herbalists still use aspen for many of the same purposes Native Americans do.
Aspen in Industry
Aspen is also a key provider of strong pulpwood that’s easy to work with, solid wood products, and oriented strand board. Aspen wood is not strong enough for dimensional lumber, but it’s tough and doesn’t splinter, so it’s used for playground equipment and sauna benches, barn floors and horse stalls, fence posts and siding, packing produce, shavings, air-conditioner filters, furniture padding, and pallets, paper, and other products. It was used for mine shaft props. Aspen cambium is also ground up and fed to livestock.
A few Ecosystem Services
Aspen is a vital home and pantry for black bear, deer, elk, hare, ruffed grouse, woodcock, and smaller birds and animals. Aspen heals riversides and protects against soil erosion. It holds water in our soils and prevents runoff flooding downstream. It grows back well after wildfire and flood. In some places, aspen is used in phytoremediation (cleaning up contaminated land with plants).
Aspen Decline?
The U.S. Forest Service, in the article Aspen Decline, notes that “Some aspen stands are not recovering from disturbance and naturally regenerating the way they have in the past....Forest scientists are working to figure out what is happening.” In Colorado, this holds for the southwestern part of the state.
Is this "Sudden Aspen Decline" (SAD)?
Yes. “As of 2007, widespread, severe, rapid dieback and mortality had affected about 13 percent of the aspen in Colorado. SAD is different from what is traditionally referred to as aspen decline. The decline is faster and associated with different pathogens and insects than in regular aspen death.”
How do you know a grove is healthy?
“If you can see through it,” they say. If you can, the sprout and sapling layers, the next generation, are missing. There may be conifers or grasses instead, which will eventually take over. See the article for more information.
Aspens are iconic here. We don’t want them cracking foundations or running into pipes leading to septic systems as they search for water during droughts, but well back from the house they are a vital part of the ecosystem that keeps us going.