# What is it?



## iamasimpleman (Jan 8, 2009)

Great site you all have here. Im going to warn you that I may ask several stupid questions over the next period of time. Im new to homesteading. 

This tree grow quick and has a ton of seeds. It also grows quick. I actually cut down several saplings every year. The bark is smooth. 



















bad pictures I know but they were from last summer. Any ideas or shall we wait until spring to get more details?

_on edit:_ I think these may be the same picture!


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## Bear (Jan 25, 2005)

Almost looks like sumac?


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## Sandspider (Feb 12, 2008)

Possibly a type of locust??? What do the seeds look like?


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## Rockytopsis (Dec 29, 2007)

Looks like a really big Staghorn sumac, but that usually grows in clumps.
Here is a link.
http://www.oplin.lib.oh.us/tree/fact pages/sumac_staghorn/sumac_staghorn.html

Nancy


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## iamasimpleman (Jan 8, 2009)

The seeds dont bloom like the ones pictured in Nancys link but the stems look identical. I doesnt look like the locust(they are thorny) that my parents have. I dont recall a milky sap but the leaves pictures do resemble it. Mine may not be clumped to my trimming every spring. Thanks Guys


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

can you get a close-up of the bark. that thing looks like the amur corktree i found here last year. some are male and some are female and make berries. 

*amur corktree*


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## Gailann Schrader (May 10, 2002)

golden rain tree?

something like that.

Does the bark smell walnutty?


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## jedsmom (Aug 15, 2007)

It looks like Tree of Heaven to me. _Ailanthus altissima_. It's very invasive...explaining the profusion of seeds and the suckers you cut down each year. I'd cut it down if I were you. A dead giveaway for ID is that the leaves smell like peanut butter when crushed.


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## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

Definately tree of heaven.


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## backachersfarm (Jun 14, 2005)

I'm not sure what these things are calledeither , but we called them stink trees. they will come up everywhere. They grow by seed and runners from the roots. It took us 3 yrs to get rid of them after we cut down the main tree. They swarmed all the flower beds.
Sharon


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## Yldrosie (Jan 28, 2006)

Quick! Cut it down, and then pour stump killer into some holes drilled into the stump. We call it the "tree from Hell".


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## Sandspider (Feb 12, 2008)

Yldrosie said:


> We call it the "tree from Hell".


.....and it looks like such a nice tree.....

If you do cut it down, you might try girdling it with a saw or axe in midsummer. Then let it stand into the next growing season to make sure it is dead then cut it down. That will minimize the amount of shoots which will grow off the root system.


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## iamasimpleman (Jan 8, 2009)

Shoots do gro off the roots. I dont have an issue with it taking over as I keep all the new shoots cut down every year. I like it so much I planted one in the front yard.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Kill it. Kill it. Kill it!! Quick!
It is a ghetto palm or sumac and it is a horrible weed! The roots and runners are long and strong!
And, gack!, that close to your house I bet they are up under your foundation. They are a webby tangle from hell. Before you know it you will have one growing up through your bathroom drain!
You will never be completely rid of it because I bet your neighbors have them too.
Get the big one adn keep a close eye and grab every little one you can as they come up!


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## RevJack (Jan 25, 2007)

I have one of those, its a nice tree but I don't know what it is either.

I thought it was a hickory tree until I saw the seeds it set. I got it out of the woods as a wild sapling.

Perhaps it is some kind of ash tree?
The wood is very hard when you prune it.


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

what are the seeds like?


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## Yldrosie (Jan 28, 2006)

We cut down the one that was here 4 years ago. Every year since then I have worked constantly cutting and pulling the shoots that have come up as far as 15 feet away from the main stump. I had some raised beds fairly close and had to move them; The roots from this monster underneath look like it was full of coconut husks it was so thick.

When I cut it down, I leveled it to the ground, pour stump killer, and it STILL sent shoots everywhere.

A neighbor a few blocks away planted one of them. Now his whole yard is taken over, clear out into the ditch in front of his place. There are even shoots coming across the paved road from his house. That stuff went clear under the road and popped up at least 76 feet from his mess of a jungle yard. It's just awful.


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## RevJack (Jan 25, 2007)

I looked and looked I found the one I have. It drops so many seeds I also get shoots everywhere.










This is it!
http://www.anr.msu.edu/robertsd/ash/ashtree_id.html

:bouncy:


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## jedsmom (Aug 15, 2007)

I don't mean to be argumentative but I've double checked with my forester husband and we both think the photos you supplied look like tree of heaven...but a good check to see if it is an ash is to look at the buds....winter buds on an ash (any species) look like hersey kisses. variation in the color of the buds on ash trees can help identify the ash species. 

Still, I think the photo looks like tree of heaven --the branching pattern is wrong for sumac but it does have the red (sumac like) leafy tips of tree of heaven. Also the seeds of tree of heaven or ash could be thought to look very similar (esp. from a distance). Tree of heaven also produces many! many! seeds. 

I promise that after this I'll concede gracefully...tree of heaven is just so invasive I couldn't help posting my thoughts.


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## Wildcrofthollow (Apr 20, 2005)

Well, we made it to the library today, so I am catching up. The tree pictured is almost certainly Ailanthus altissima. Called "tree of heaven", "Cat---- tree", "paradise tree", "ghetto palm" and many, many others. Ailanthus has become quite invasive in The US, I know that it is terribly so in VA. Most roadside right-of-ways in VA are now colonized by Ailanthus. It reseeds prolifically. The ardent native plants folks will undoubtedly tell you to cut it down (I would if I were you) but Ailanthus does have a few things to commend it. It is the only source of quinine now growing in N. America (I read this somewhere) so if malaria threatens...., It is useful as a firemaking wood (think bowdrill here) but it is useless as firewood all flash and no heat. The wood is light, weak, and rots immediately in contact with the soil, hence it is best described as vertical mulch. If cut down the tree will rot quickly, even faster if it is chipped up. They are not long lived, and are very prone to breakage in storms. If you do cut it down it will resprout from the stump, usually many times before you will have killed it. Once upon a time, I was sure that this was a very large staghorn sumac, (this was back when ailanthus was just getting started taking over the world). Ailanthus is one of the few trees which seems to like living in cities, hence "ghetto palm", and I have seen them growing in many unlikely places, like the cracks of sidewalks etc.


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## 2ndmouse (Jan 16, 2009)

Tree Of heaven
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=AIAL

Tree of heaven's seeds are different from the ash, as are the leaves.

Ash
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=FRPE

Also the flowers of each are different. To make a 100% ID you need a leaf or, this time of year, a close up of one seed and the seed clusters.

They both do look very similar. 
Can you get a good pic of the seeds?

Compare them to the seed pics in the links above.


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