Hi Everyone! I live in Southern Ontario, Canada. There are some trees growing behind my property, but I don't know what they are. My husband really enjoys them, as they remind him of somewere tropical, and I'm considering getting a few to place in the backyard for some much needed shade. A neighbour a few doors down has two of these trees which tower over her house, so I know they can get very large. Can anyone shed some light?? Thanks Zagna
Ailanthus altissima, sorry to say. One of the worst invasive weeds you can get. Cut one down, and it'll send up thousands of root suckers anything up to 20-30m away from the trunk. Definitely NOT one to plant near to buildings.
I've got a similar tree that grew really quickly where I couldn't use it :( I believe that in SW Ontario this tree is more likely to be a butternut. You will have to check what kind of fruits it makes. The Ailanthus altissima makes 'fruits' called samaras (flat wing-like similar to maple keys). If your trees make hard-coated green nuts about the size of golf balls, it is probably a butternut tree.
"Good" news! These trees have thousands of winged seeds with nearly 100% viability! You won't need to enjoy them from afar for long because they will be growing on your property whether you want them or not. Crush some of the leaves and smell them - if it smells putrid you have it. By the way, this is a good way to distinguish between Juglans (Walnut) species and Ailanthus (stink tree) species. Crushed leaves of walnut have a pleasant citrus smell while those of stink trees, well, stink. Walnut also have finely toothed leaflets while stink trees don't. After a while they are easy to distinguish from a distance. My experience comes from trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to eradicate Ailanthus from our property. We still have hundreds of them scattered throughout the property despite our efforts to kill them off.