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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks slithy. Sad that what should be a revered manifestation of the power of life to survive has become
anathema.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Every ailanthus that I see taking a square foot of space from the dogwoods and redbuds of Virginia makes my blood boil. I'm all for survival and survivors, but I have no romantic inclination to embrace the ailanthus after seeing what it can do to a broad expanse of land in very short time. In other words, the metaphor is only a metaphor; trying to get rid of ailanthus is difficult. I can spot the ailanthus from half mile away any season--their winter fishing-pole-like spikes coming up out of the mountains fingers of death. And they propogate viciously and with unusual speed. Tree of hell; at least for Virginia woodlands.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Dear WW: Since the ailanthus has been in US for over two hundred years, I wonder why it has only recently become such a problem.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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We could offer various theories:
--perhaps expansion of the highway system; there seems to be an abundance of ailanthus taking over I-81 from NY south to VA at least
--perhaps something in acid rain and pollution of water tables; ailanthus seems to thrive in conditions other living plants languish in
--but something dynamically different must have happened during the last 30 years because we saw very little ailanthus in the Richmond area in the early 70s; there is a great deal of ailanthus today all over the city and even out here in the countryside 30 miles from Richmond; we found our first ailanthus on the farm year before last and immediately destroyed the copse. We've been looking out for it ever since because it takes off like wildfire.
It's different from kudzu; kudzu covers everything and eventually kills what it covers. Ailanthus simply occupies any space available--any empty available space--and then grows very swiftly upward, thereby blocking out light of species that do not grow as tall, such as dogwoods and redbuds.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Maybe a scheme such as is used to clear land for soybeans, of get rid of mesquite in Texas. A big thing like a huge tractor drawn flatiron cuts all bushes at goung level.
Of course, the mesquite is turned to charcoal, and peddled as barbecue fuel. Maybe some ingenious entrepreneur will find a way to get make use of ailanthus.
I still get a chuckle out of a bigshot in Georgia braggin about virtues of kudzu when I was stationed there in WWII. Here in S. California, there are Hispanics with herds of goats that eat bushes to keep them from becoming fire hazard. They would do a good job on kudzu, and maybe on ailanthus also.
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
What to one would be an invader, crowding out the rightful native, to another is a symbol of persistance in an unfriendly environment.
In my youth we had a tree of heaven growing in a crack between the garage walkway and a cement wall. I thought of it as exotic, romantic and proof of the strength of the slow patience of life over the cold, implacable, soulless concrete.
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
re:Maybe a scheme such as is used to clear land for soybeans, of get rid of mesquite in Texas. A big thing like a huge tractor drawn flatiron cuts all bushes at goung level.
that will not work for ailanthus, since one of the characteristics of the tree are large, graceful branches...
the tree has a very lightweigh upperstucture, with fern like fronds, and it puts most of its energy into the root system..
cut off the top? no problem, it grows a new one.. kill the root? almost impossible! these strong roots are the ones that 'break' the concrete, as they work there way down.
they also break sewer pipes, and water pipes too..
mow them down, and you get several new shoots growing from root system, like a hydra, cut off its head and it grows 2 new ones!
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
The eucalyptus is doing the same in Spain when I was there a couple of years ago. It had been planted as a quick growing source of pulp and paper. Without its natural competitors it took off, growing both from the root and from the thousands of seed each tree produces and gradually taking over the native forests. Arboreal Frankensteins.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Zed: I think it was in the fifties, that Daniel Keith Ludwig, who was then the richest man in US, got interest in developing a source of paper pulp wood. He got a huge tract of land in Brazil, not far from mouth of Amazon. He had a papermill built of a huge barge in Japan and towed across the Pacific. But the expert he had advising him talked him into limiting trees planted after clearing rain forest to only two varieties. All the other experts predicted that such monoculture would invite disease to wipe out the project. Apparently it did. I've never been able to learn the details, but the whole multibillion dollar project went down the drain. If eucalyptus is suitable for paper production, a shame he didn't try it. I am still trying to find out details about the failure of the project.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
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But if he had tried it it would have taken over. It can't be confined as the seeds have little wings and glide. On the other hand Eucalyptus grows where it is hot and dry, what is the cllimate in Brasil?
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