If, when looking at a tree, you have doubts - an aspen in front of you or a poplar, check if the tree has the characteristic features of each tree separately. Knowing these distinctive signs will help you identify the tree correctly.
Instructions
Step 1
Choose the right time of year when you will learn to distinguish between aspen and poplar. It is most convenient and clear to distinguish between trees at that time of the year when they have leaves, i.e. in spring, summer or early fall, until the leaves have fallen. In winter, this is more difficult, but still possible.
Step 2
In spring, notice how the tree buds. Take the twig home and place it in the water. On a poplar branch, the leaves will begin to bloom quickly and will have a characteristic odor and stickiness. Aspen buds wake up more slowly, and the leaves shine less brightly.
Step 3
See how the tree blooms. Aspen blooms in early spring, before the poplar, even before the leaves bloom. Poplar blooms closer to summer. You will recognize him by the white fluff flying from him in all directions. No other tree is capable of forming such large drifts of fluff in the middle of summer, like poplar. This is the main difference between poplar and aspen, which grows long brunky earrings at the time of flowering.
Step 4
In summer, take a close look at the leaves on the tree. It is the leaves that are the main distinguishing feature of each tree, one might even say, a kind of visiting card. Despite the apparent similarity of the shape of the leaves of aspen and poplar, resembling a circle or a heart, the aspen leaf has a long flexible leg that does not break when tied in a knot, while the leg of the poplar leaf is short. It is the length of the leg of the aspen leaf, which allows it to sway and tremble in the wind, that we owe the saying "Why tremble like an aspen leaf?"
Step 5
In winter, look at the shape of the crown. With a similar light color of bark to aspen, poplar in some cases has a pyramidal crown with branches directed obliquely upwards.
Step 6
Try breaking a tree branch in half. Aspen is more fragile than poplar and breaks more easily.
