urbpan | Oct. 6th, 2005

Oct. 6th, 2005

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.

( one more )

North America's most massive bird goes from almost extinct to almost ubiquitous.

The wild turkey was extirpated from Massachusetts and several other states, due to overhunting, by the early twentieth century. Turkeys from rural states such as Vermont were reintroduced, and as hunting became less popular, and suburban developments created more of the "forest edge" habitat, they have skyrocketed. With fewer humans preying on them, and virtually no animal predators of adults (barring the occasional bobcat or especially daring coyote), the Massachusetts population of turkeys has skyrocketed.

Now they are considered a pest in many areas, particularly those suburban towns that don't allow hunting. Wild turkeys have been reported from the Brighton and Jamaica Plain neighborhoods in Boston.

Personally, I have seen them at the Boston Nature Center, but not yet in my neighborhood. But it's just a matter of time. I have found, using a domestic turkey in educational programs, that most people are more familiar with wild turkeys than they are with the kind of turkey they eat every Thanksgiving.