Swedish Columnar Aspen

How many times have I said that narrow trees are in? Well, here is another one and it looks good. The relatively new Swedish Columnar Aspen, Populus tremuloides ‘Erecta’ is another tree in that category and one to consider for narrow spaces that we continually have to deal with. I was skeptical at first with this being a poplar, and I know there are some drawbacks but so far they are few.

I spotted this tree a few years ago in a local street tree planting. Since then I have been impressed. The Swedish Columnar Aspen apparently will grow to about 40 feet tall and maybe up to 10 feet wide but that may be optimistic. Few large ones I have seen exceed 6 feet wide. They are fast growing and especially narrow in youth, have extremely white bark and an almost artificially perfect leaf with an undulating crenate-dentate edge. OK, I had to look that up but it means “scalloped edge with rounded projections” and “edge with pointed or toothed projections” respectively. Anyway, it has what I consider the perfect poplar leaf. And, of course, they flutter in the wind providing a shimmering effect in the sunlight. And most impressive for a poplar is its fall color, with incredible shades of red, orange, maroon and yellows. What a sight!

So far the street trees I have observed have not exhibited excessive or obvious surface root growth which is encouraging. Growth has been relatively good in what I consider poor city soils. Of small interest is what I call the “Lazy Lateral”, or the occasional lateral limb that either just grows a bit too heavy or long and just falls out to a more horizontal angle from this very upright tree.
They transplant very easy in the nursery and from our digging experience, also do not show an excessive amount of root growth-again a good sign for city planting.

I honestly do not have a great deal more experience with this variety but am excited about what I have seen thus far. Let me know what you think if you have observations of this tree.