The Willow Family: Salicaceae
Willows are common enough that most people are probably aware of pussy-willows as one of the first plants of Spring, with wands of fuzzy pearl-gray buds. But how may types of willows can be found along streams and in wet areas will be a surprise; there are 24 species listed for El Dorado County. And it might also be a surprise to learn that the willow family includes aspen and cottonwood trees!
The species name "Salix" (plural: salices) comes to us from Latin and it was that name for willows in Roman times. I have always understood that the word salix meant “to leap or spring”, referring to a willow’s fast growth, springing from the ground, as it were. Even a cut willow stick poked into wet ground has a good chance of growing into a nice shrub.
Probably most everyone knows that willows are the source for the main ingredient in aspirin: acetylsalicylic acid. See that salic part of the word?
The first “inventors” of aspirin were the Sumerians who knew the medicinal virtues of willow leaves. They therefore used these willow leaves as painkillers and were especially used to relieve fevers. In the year 400 B.C., Hippocrates recommended to women to drink “Willow leaf teas” to relieve the pain while giving birth and to stop the fever.
— Newsfinder
While willows are considered challenging to identify to species, at least the trees are pretty easy: aspens (one type only) and cottonwoods are likely familiar to most people and can be identified from a distance.
Aspens (Populus tremuloides) are found at moderate to high elevations (6000ft and above), and while pretty trees for most of the year, they are the stars of Autumn in the High Country.
There are some aspen stands up around Ice House in the Crystal Basin area, and while I don't want to dismiss the relative ease in getting to see them, they simply don't have enough mass to really make a great display come October. For a much better experience, head up to Carson Pass and enjoy the display from Silver Lake on up past Caples Lake. If you only had that to look at, you could be happy. BUT...why not go on up and over the pass to take in Hope Valley? Going down to Hope Valley, then up Hwy 89 to Meyers will take you over Luther Pass and past Grass Lake. This is a beautiful drive in late September into October, with very nice displays of golden aspens and blue sky.
As nice as that is, the Five-Star drive is to head over Monitor Pass, down to Mono Lake, and take in some eastern Sierra scenery (like Lundy Canyon?) The entire drive, from Silver Lake all the way to Mono Lake is stunning. The drive up to Conway Summit is as close to being the best one-day drive I can think of in Autumn.
We have mainly coniferous forests around us, and while we do have a mix of maples and oaks, those trees don't provide the spectacular change of color that will turn heads. For the true leaf-peeper experience, you need to depend on aspens which mostly turn butter-yellow, with some going to coppery tones while others having orange tones.
So why are there patches of similar aspen colors? That would be because many groves of aspens are actually one tree! Clones, anyway. Aspens don't generally reproduce by seeds fluttering to the ground or being secreted away by birds or squirrels. Aspen seed is fluff, and while some do grow, most don’t; they mainly reproduce by sending out suckers, officially called ramets. Here is an interesting read. So while individual stems (trunks?) may be relatively short-lived, the whole mass of clones “can be an incredibly long-lived organism—some conjecture that well-established clones date back 1 million years”. That may sound a bit extreme, but a more general thought is that many aspen groups are more like 10,000 years old.
Monitor Pass is another great place to wander around in aspen groves, and who knows? you might find an actual message carved into the trunk by a Basque sheepherder. “Many Basque sheepherders came to the American West between 1850 and 1950. As they worked their way through the isolated areas of the West, they carved an amazing variety of items into the bark of the ubiquitous aspen trees.” (from Speaking Through the Aspen)
I can’t fail to mention the fun of the name Populus. If you think it sounds like population, you’re on the right track. Populus is indeed the Latin for people. The leaves have stems (petioles) which are flattened, not round. When a breeze blows, the leaves twist (tremble) and the whole aspect reminded Romans of applauding people in the stadium, so the tree was simply called populus.
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