The majority of the woods of south west France have come into being either as a result of the invasion by scrub of abandoned fields vineyards and also heathlands, or by the deliberate planting of pines and chestnuts. Where nature prevails, we have scrubby oak woods with various species of undershrubs dependent on the soil type. The original prehistoric wild-wood was long ago seriously modified or cleared by man and his animals, the sheep and goats. In searching for traces of this original wild-wood, you must look for the occurrence of unusual species or those with a fragmented distribution. These species may be spectacular, like snowdrops. Others, even though they be trees, pass unnoticed by the layman. Sometimes place names indicate that these species existed at some time. I think of the beech tree, common enough in woods of northern France but in the south, it is more rare, but some place names give a ghostly memory. These are place names like Fage, Fau, Fajole , which indicate the original Latin Fagus or beech tree. The common name used today, le hêtre, is more recent. In my area we have a tour de fage where the English in the 14th century are supposed to have stashed a hoard of golden ecus. The names like Tremblade, Trémouilles and Orme and l'Homme indicate the aspen and the elm. Neither of these two species of trees grow easily from seed. They depend on spreading sideways by root suckers. In the case of aspen trees which are either male or female, blocks of trees all of the same sex demonstrate this phenomenon. This restricted reproduction means that once the trees are eradicated from a place, they are unlikely to come back. The fact that the leaves are readily eaten by sheep and cattle, again limits its power to survive. Nevertheless, aspen roots are long lived and their suckers can grow many metres from the parent tree.
If we can find these trees in woods, or sometimes on lane sides, then it is possible that other unusual species of an earlier ecology may be in the same localities. Recently it has been shown that the aspen has various insect predators and specialised species of fellow travellers (like lichens and mosses) on its branches, not found elsewhere. I personally discover the beautiful bright orange sponge-cap mushroom Leccinum aurantiacum , which particularly grows on the roots of aspens, each year beneath the trees.
The unusually large winter buds of the aspen are sticky and the protective bud scales are clothed on the inner side with hairs. This makes them fairly resistant to winter frosts. The catkins dangle by the end of February, scattering pollen from deep crimson anthers embedded amongst the silky hairs. Later, the hairy seeds are blown by the wind, but rarely will any survive.
In the summer you can recognise the tree by the almost circular leaves. But more, the long leaf stalks are strongly flattened from side to side. They shake at the least breath of wind. So it is that in all the Latin-tongue countries the name is 'the trembling tree' le tremble .
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