Fungus on Ailanthus

[urbpan]

Ailanthus altissima (Tree-of-heaven) is my favorite urban tree.

Native to Asia (I have seen pictures of it growing out of less-traveled parts of the Great Wall) it was brought to North America in the 19th century to help landscape city parks. Now its the most successfully naturalized urban tree. It grows out of sidewalk cracks as an innocuous weed and quickly turns into a good-sized tree. The odor that the male tree produces, to encourage flies to pollenate it, has caused the city of Washington D.C. to ban the planting of it. It has a natural resistance to pollution and seems to have few enemies or pathogens on this continent. This is the first time I've seen one with fungus growing on it.







I believe the fungus is Irpex lacteus.

Comments

[brush-rat.livejournal.com]

How do I put this delicately? Is that the tree that smells like, er, Ron Jeremy?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Well, you failed to put it delicately, but yes.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, be fair. You know for me, that is delicately. I'm perfectly willing and able to provide you with a list of less delicate terms.

[ignusfaatus.livejournal.com]

um, wow it looks like the tree had been fully grafted there at the bottom! am I right? Someone really wanted this tree to survive. You should sneak out htere at night and see if this mushroom glows in the dark. or pick a peice and bring it in to see...

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, what looks like a graft is where the tree grew through it's chain link "cage." The seeds took root in the asphalt around some kind of utility (gas? vents? electrical?) that was in a chain link protector. The tree sent its shoot up through the gap in the fence, and as it grew, swallowed it up. Last year, it broke at that spot. This year, it sent another shoot up, and engulfed the fence again. You can see the bit of fencing where maintenance people had to cut it away, still lodged in the now-dead wood (with the mushroom growing out).

Many trees can do this to fences, but Ailanthus does it very often, since it grows quickly along fencelines and in sidewalk cracks. Check out this post for more: http://www.livejournal.com/users/urbpan/66508.html