Participant Info

Species

Populus tremuloides [Populus aurea]

Family

Salicaceae

CommonName

quaking aspen

Presence

YES

Status

native

EarliestDate

1934

LatestDate

2025

Ecosystem

basin, foothill, montane, ruderal

Geobotanical

SSawatch, Garitas, SSanjuans, Culebras, NCristos, UBasin, LBasin

Counties

Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, Archuleta

Passes

Cochetopa, La Veta, Los Pinos, Medano, Mosca, South, Spring Creek, Wolf Creek

WildlifePreserves

Baca, Big Meadows Reservoir, Coller, Great Sand Dunes

Other Localities

La Botica

PhotoRecords

YES Rich Haswell: Rio Grande Co, FR 332 above Beaver Creek Reservoir 27 Nov 2021

Comments

In the Watershed, quakers are everywhere, often occupying burned-out conifer forests, and sometimes logged clearings and roadsides. Populus tremuloides follows the Rio Grande drainage down through New Mexico to Big Bend Texas. In the USA, the species is found in every state west of the Great Plains and across the northern third of the nation. Note that currently the extended Watershed drought (since 1996) has made quaking aspen more susceptible to fungus and bark and borer beetles, and "sudden aspen decline" (SAD) is increasing, especially on the west side of the Valley. Note that it is the flattening of the petiole just below the base of the leaf that makes the leaf twist or "quake" in the breeze.

Annotation