Trembling aspen – Populus tremuloides – is a native deciduous tree that’s common on the prairies and in the boreal forest. It spreads underground by its roots, cloning itself. Stands of aspens look like separate trees, but that can be an illusion: they are often one organism. The Pando clone in Utah, for instance, is a colony of more than 47,000 trembling aspens, all clones of one another. Each tree is an instance of the larger whole. Pando is considered to be one of the largest organisms on the planet, weighing some 6 million kilograms …
Bio:
Ken Wilson lives on Treaty 4 territory in oskana kâ-asastêki (Regina, Saskatchewan), where he teaches English courses at the University of Regina. He has published academic essays in scholarly journals, and his creative nonfiction essay “Populus” was shortlisted for the Malahat Review’s 2021 Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize. He holds a PhD in Media and Artistic Research from the University of Regina and is an alumnus of the Sage Hill Writing Experience. His current writing project is a book-length manuscript on walking.