The Effect of a Late Spring Frost on the Radial Growth of Variant Quaking Aspen Biotypes

Abstract The foliage of an early leafing biotype of Populus tremuloides was partially damaged by a late spring frost, June 3, 1963, but a contiguous late leafing biotype received no apparent damage. There was no secondary production of abnormal foliage by the frost damaged ramets. The average 1963 radial growth of the damaged biotype was only 27 percent of its lifetime average annual increment while that of the undamaged biotype was 80 percent. It is suggested that the inherent variations in the response of aspen to frost damage reported in the literature may be a secondary effect of the apparently inherent variations in leafing date and not variations in frost tolerance per se.