This time of year, before leaf fall, these flame trees brighten any overcast day with their bright yellow sheen. Due to this year’s very warm and sunny summer the trees have produced more sugar, adding vibrant reds into the mix as well.
Their leaves that quake and shimmer in the slightest of breezes were once thought to be the tree communicating between this world and the next. A crown made of Aspen leaves gave the wearer the power to visit and return from the underworld. The Greek word ‘aspis’ means shield, a piece of armour usually made from Aspen wood.
Aspen are a pioneer tree and keystone species supporting a huge diversity of insects, mosses, lichen and fungi, however their number locally is small at the moment.
The Aspen is diocesan with trees being either male or female. The oldest largest living organism in the world is a single male tree in Utah in the US that dates back to the last ice age. 108 acres of trees are all offspring of an original sapling due to its ability to throw out suckers, all connected by root with the same DNA. I am told when the trees rustle in the wind the sound is ethereal.