Aspen - Populus tremula

Spreading tree to 20 metres, freely suckering and forming thickets. Leaves greyish beneath and fluttering on long flattened stalks; glabrous when mature - but note that the leaves on suckers/epicormic are oval or cordate, and hairy.  

Male catkins are grey brown, briefly yellow before pollen is shed.  Female catkins are greenish with re-brown bracts, becoming woolly and white in may before shedding the woolly seeds 

Grey Poplar (P x canescens) can have similar shaped leaves. 

Photographs of leaves from crown, under and upper side, but NOT form suckers or epicormic growth, which should not be used to identify the species.

Woodland, hedgerows and the banks of rivers and streams.

February to March.

Damp woods, copses.

Frequent and widespread in Britain.

Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 102 of the 617 tetrads.