text: ok.  is the tree with the leaves that shake in the slightest breeze "trembling birch" or "trembling poplar" or are both terms ok? the tree you are probably alluding to is the trembling or quaking aspen. latin name populous tremuloides. there is also the european aspen populous tremula, and the bigtooth aspen, populous grandidentata. these aspens are members of the poplar family. the leaves have a flattened petiole, (=leaf stem) which makes the sound when the wind moves the leaves.