Document Type
Newsletter
Volume
7
Issue
1
Editor
Paul Rogers
Publisher
Western Aspen Alliance
Publication Date
1-2016
First Page
1
Last Page
4
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Abstract
Growing Aspen in Cultivated Landscapes
Michael R. Kuhns
Quaking aspen (Populous tremuloides) is a beautiful tree when it is growing on native sites, which in the West is normally at a fairly high elevation. In native locations trees are exposed to less heat and have greater moisture availability than when they are planted in cultivated landscapes at low elevations. Problems that pose minor problems at high elevations become major problems on those more stressful low elevation sites. Leaf spot diseases get worse, borers seem more attracted to them and damage seems much worse, stem cankers seem to be more common and to have a greater effect, and nutritional deficiencies occur that do not occur at high elevations where soil pH is less than at low elevations. The heat and low humidity found in valleys also causes leaf scorch or browning of the leaf margins, meaning that aspen have less fall color because of less leaf area. The trees end up less healthy and also less esthetically pleasing than they are in the mountains.
Recommended Citation
Western Aspen Alliance, "Tremblings, January 2016" (2016). Tremblings. Paper 27.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/tremblings/27