Tree of heaven is a hellish invasive species. Could a fungus save the day?
The fast-growing tree, native to China, is also a motel for harmful non-native insects, like the spotted lanternfly.
Photograph by Universal Images Group North America LLC / DeAgostini, Alamy
ByTroy Farah
Many trees would be lucky to be as beautiful as
Ailanthus altissima, also known as tree of heaven, a deciduous tree with quill-shaped leaves, light gray bark, and red-and-yellow-tinted seeds that resemble a sunset.
But outside its native China, the plant has also earned the nickname “tree of hell,” due to its highly invasive nature: it can grow three feet a year, cloning itself via underground “suckers,” or through the hundreds of thousands of seeds each tree produces every year.