Click on the images help you identify a big-toothed aspen.
Form
Can grow to a height of 60 to 80 feet with a trunk diameter of 10 to 20 inches. Slender, rather rigid branches create narrow round-topped crown.
Bark
Smooth, gray or yellowish green. Furrowed and dark brown at base of old trees.
Leaf
Simple, alternate on stem, 2 to 4 inches and coarse-toothed. Color is dark green upper surface turning yellow in autumn. Leaves appear one to two weeks later than that of quaking aspen, and at first are silvery white. Buds are light gray, downy, and larger than those of quaking aspen.
Fruit (seed)
Small, cotton-like capsules grouped in 3 to 6 inch catkins, easily carried by the wind for long distances. Matures in late spring.
Range
Found on sandy or rich soils that are moist. Common throughout except in the southwestern and northeastern parts of Minnesota. Shade-intolerant, very fast-growing.
Wood uses
Straight-grained, fine- and uniformly textured, light weak, soft, shrinks on drying. Used as a primary raw material source for pulp and paper and oriented strand board. Also used in the production of lumber, matchsticks, lath, and shavings. The residue generated with these products is used in the production of densified wood fuels (pellets) or burned directly as green fuel.