Aspen stands out in summer

THE aspen is, in my opinion, one of our most attractive native trees.

I was admiring one the other day and trying to figure out what it was that made it so attractive. It’s a slender, elegant tree which develops fine leaf colour in the autumn, with an emphasis on buttery yellows. But what makes the aspen stand out is sound and movement during the summer. The leaf stalks are flattened and flexible so that the leaves flutter in the slightest breeze and hit against each other, making a rustling sound. In mixed woodland you’ll often hear an aspen before you see it.

Unfortunately aspens are not common, although they’re fairly widespread in damp soils. Large specimens (they are capable of reaching a height of 30 metres) are even rarer. The finest I know are on the shores of Lough Leane in Killarney. They are dioecious, male and female catkins growing on separate trees and pollination being carried out by the wind. Because they’re so sparsely distributed this doesn’t seem to happen very often in Ireland and we never get the huge swathes of autumn colour they provide in Scandinavia.