This picture of bright spring foliage was taken in late spring on the Kaibab Plateau in northern Arizona a few miles from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Aspens are known by several names, including trembling aspen, quaking aspen, and trembling poplar. The most widely distributed tree in North America, they are found from above the Arctic Circle in Alaska to central Mexico and from coast to coast in the United States and Canada.
Chances are that all the aspens (Populus tremuloides) in this photo are part of one large organism. Quaking aspens reproduce by cloning themselves, sending up suckers from their roots. Some groves in North America are believed to be up to 8000 years old. One grove in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah holds the Guinness World Record as the "World's Most Massive Plant."
Ash Creek Images
Photographs of the West by Doug Gorsline
A Grove of Quaking Aspens on the Kaibab Plateau Leafs Out with New Foliage.
