Latin Name - Populus tremuloides
Height - 40-50 feet
Spread - 20-30 feet
Growth Rate - Fast
USDA Zone - 2 to 6
Drought Tolerance - Low
The iconic quaking aspen elicits images of autumn gold splendor and ghostly white trunks (often with inscribed names.) Utahns are so familiar with our newly-designated state tree that most citizens can instantly recall the sound memory of a fluttering aspen (can you?). However, numerous are the homeowners who have planted this vegetable Trojan Horse to their ultimate dismay. Either the tree colonizes the yard with aspen geysers erupting from the lawn or gets borers and dies (sometimes both). Nearly every knowledgeable nurseryman stocks, but does not really recommend, quaking aspen for low elevation landscape use.