Cut some down and new ones sprout from the roots and it can be amazing how many new one come up. Yet, several years ago when I hired chippers to come in to take pines I also had them take several large (as far as large popple grows) trees. Not one new shoot came up. First time I've seen this. Then yesterday I spent some time in one of our old gardens cutting new popple sprouts. It has been 3 years since I've tilled this area. There were a couple hundred of them!
Ive noticed that on the tulip polar behind out house. The saplings trimmed back and it sprouts new shoots. It is amazing how certain trees will regenerate after falling or being cut down. Couple years ago i felled a catalpa spar and didnt get back for a few weeks to process the wood (the homeowner was kind enough to let me store them there for a bit) and when i did the stump had spouted shoots already. Checked my photo dates and i felled the spar 8/26 and that pic is 9/12/20. 17 days it grew that! Seems like most of the "weed" trees do this. Nature perseveres!
Popple (aspen) are prolific root sprouters. Here's a famous stand of them out in Utah, considered to be one singular organism. They're all clones from a single tree that took root there a long time ago: Fishlake National Forest - Home
It is amazing! It is also amazing in northern MI they will clear cut huge areas and some folks gripe about it but it does not take long for nature to re-populate that area and it is mostly popple.
In one flower bed I had established a trellis of morning glories. Wife decided she didn't want them there 2 years ago, so we've been removing every shoot since. I just noticed last evening there were several popping out of the mulch in that area. No plant reached more that 3-4" let alone seed stage. Some things are just much more resilient to live on.
That blew my mind when I learned that. One singular organism for each Aspen grove I've ever seen in Colorado.
Big tooth aspen in my side yard is constantly sending up root shoots. Most I've found are downhill from the parent tree. Dunno if that is a coincidence or not as downhill is also the lawn/garden/sunny area. Root shoots seem to be a characteristic of all or most of the poplar family of trees. We have another poplar tree here besides big tooth aspen (I've never identified exactly what it is ). It has the annoying white puffy flower but not anything as large or annoying as the Washington state cottonwood in the Seattle area.
I’m guessing Popple is a family of trees. I’ve never seen any of the “popple” trees that you guys post. Aspen is a very specific tree in Colorado. It’s highly regarded by the native Americans, and feeds elk and deer herds when the snow is several feet deep. It’s very different from what I see everyone post on here.
And that is what we call popple here. Yes, it is aspen, but I've heard it called popple from back when I was a kid. Some say that was a long time ago... Well, yesterday something else reminded me things I've seen. I'm old enough to remember when Alaska and Hawaii became a State. Like when there were just 48 states in the union. I also remember in school reading about some turnpike being built in PA. Boy, I could come up with lots of things. lol
We have 2 species of aspen here: quaking (trembling) aspen and bigtooth aspen. It's my understanding that the kind you have in Colorado is the quaking variety. They do vary in appearance quite a bit throughout the range, even in my area. I noticed the ones growing out in full sun here look a lot like yours (almost a white birch appearance). The ones growing in partial shade are darker in appearance, sometimes with more of a green or multicolor hue to the smooth bark. As they age, the bark at the base gets more furrowed, and can easily blend in within an oak forest. They aren't long lived and usually pop up in disturbed areas. Pioneer tree here, rather than the monoculture stands of it you find out your way. Here's the last tree I nabbed in January 2021. You can see how it differs quite a bit from what you're used to, but it is the same species.
Our red alder trees will sprout out like that. You can tell any area that has alder cut down and cleared. There will be clumps of alder trees with the same base.
I think it needs to be tomayto, tomahto to point out a difference in phonetics. Some might pronounce tomato, tomahto the same.
I think that is why I was confused. The Aspen here is quaking Aspen (often referred to as quakers). The leaves are small and the bark is almost always bleach white. A lot of the popple that I see on FHC has large leaves and the bark is very dark.
