Remember 9th of March when John Parrott spoke about aspen?

On 16th May Marion & Phil spotted a single aspen tree with catkins in a collection of over 60 ramets (stems) mixed with birch, scots pine and alder.  This ratio may be in line with the rarity of Aspen setting seed.

The only branches showing catkins were quite high up and digiscoping was resorted to in order to get images.

North Highland Forest Trust had information, from which I have purloined these images. (Note from 2018; the NHFT has no website.)

Female Catkin

Male Catkin

I will try to watch the catkins develop to ascertain which sex they are. (Note from 2018; internet searches show the very clear differences between male and female aspen catkins. Male look quite red. Female are green going whitish.)

To confirm which catkin is which sex NHFT advice is to break off a small branch/twig, place it in water so it survives, and watch the catkins develop.

The location of this aspen tree is NH 59692 89843, +/- 7metres, so says the GPS.

That is above Ardgay, Sutherland on Landranger sheet 21.