Welcome to my world! I've probably pulled up a dozen 'tree of heaven' seedlings this week! Have you pulled one up yet? When you break the stem, it sort of smells like rotten peanut butter.
We did pull one up while weeding the veg patch, but I didn’t think to give it a sniff! Will keep my eyes and nose peeled for a suitable subject this afternoon…
I really appreciate this piece, Dan. As an environmental writer, I've tried to disentangle the problematic division between native and exotic myself. First the bad news: this dogma is very deeply entrenched in traditional conservation practices, and the entire discipline of invasive species biology has a perverse incentive to maintain what is becoming an increasingly useless distinction.
The good news is that a growing chorus of academics and sciene writers (Emma Marris and Fred Pearce are particularly good) are shining a light on the entirely arbitrary nature of such classification. Academic Mark Davis one wrote to me that, "There are no moral imperatives in ecology." Its likely our hand will be forced to revise our thinking about "nativeness" as more and more species expand or contract their ranges as a result of climate change.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment, Larry, and for the words of encouragement! "There are no moral imperatives in ecology." That really resonates. We humans - even those of us with the best intentions towards conservation and preservation of the natural world - do seem always to be ranking or prioritising particular species over others, based on such moral imperatives. Moral imperatives entirely of our own creation, and nothing to do with nature itself. And thanks so much for sharing that link - I look forward to having a listen!
I admit that until about a year ago, I didn't understand what all the native plant hubbub was about. I'm somewhat better informed now, and it saddens me to see that this issue, like so many others, can be polarizing. Some of those advocating for more native plants have become zealots to the point of demanding that all non-natives be removed from a landscape. They make no distinction between invasive and non-invasive species. I have a lot more energy for tackling invasives run amok in our garden than for purging our space of flowering perennials that just happen to have been introduced at some point in the past.
Yes, that’s a subtle but important distinction! Native plants too, of course, can be invasive, or at least they can thuggishly prevent other species from flourishing. In an ideal world, I think, our plants would be as useful/beneficial to as many other species (including humans, bugs, animals, etc) as possible. Often that means native, though non-native plants can still be of value. But actually, I also think that there’s still a place in our gardens for frivolously useless plants, if they bring us pleasure!
Oh for sure. So many of our native species are under threat of being wiped out by various pests and diseases - if we were to get rid of all the non-natives too, we’d be left with a whole lot of nothing!
I had heard of Tree of Heaven. It sounded like another beautiful exotic that would not survive our tough Northern Vermont winters. However, after reading your post, I found it listed in Vermont Invasive Species list and found 4 Vermont sightings of it recorded on the INaturalist APP. So it is here. I am making a feeble effort to combat buckthorn, which I see everywhere now that I know what it looks like. It is a handsome bush/tree. I heard it is used for hedges in England. The county forester tells us that we can expect to lose all our large Ash trees to Emerald ash borer in the next 5 to 10 years. They make up 20% of the trees on our property. We will never get rid of the buckthorn and we will not be able to save the ash. Alas, this reads as a metaphor of our current state of national/world affairs. I will keep my eye out for Tree of Heaven.
I had a look at the equivalent recorded entries for Japanese knotweed here on Long Island, and although there are a good few on there, I have seen at least a dozen that no one has reported. From what I can tell, folk here don’t seem to be too bothered by it (or aware of its status as an invasive plant). And actually, as bullyish as it may be, it is quite striking to see the knotweed in large swathes like this - back home in London it tends to get reported and removed before it can get anywhere near this size. As for the Tree of Heaven, so far I haven’t seen it form any large monoculture clusters, but rather is integrating itself quite attractively among the native species. Sad to hear about your Ash trees - in the UK Ash Dieback is wiping out ours at lightning pace. The native oaks are under threat too. And European olives are in trouble. We might come to view Tree of Heaven & Co in a more favourable light…
We may yet come to depend on these robust, resilient immigrants.
Many came to those shores with no dream, rather horror and trauma. And the creation of that US of A depended on those robust and resilient people from the get go!
You’re absolutely right, Frances, of course. There are layers of complexity - and terrible cruelty - that I didn’t touch on in my post. You’re right to do so here, thank you.
Welcome to my world! I've probably pulled up a dozen 'tree of heaven' seedlings this week! Have you pulled one up yet? When you break the stem, it sort of smells like rotten peanut butter.
We did pull one up while weeding the veg patch, but I didn’t think to give it a sniff! Will keep my eyes and nose peeled for a suitable subject this afternoon…
I really appreciate this piece, Dan. As an environmental writer, I've tried to disentangle the problematic division between native and exotic myself. First the bad news: this dogma is very deeply entrenched in traditional conservation practices, and the entire discipline of invasive species biology has a perverse incentive to maintain what is becoming an increasingly useless distinction.
The good news is that a growing chorus of academics and sciene writers (Emma Marris and Fred Pearce are particularly good) are shining a light on the entirely arbitrary nature of such classification. Academic Mark Davis one wrote to me that, "There are no moral imperatives in ecology." Its likely our hand will be forced to revise our thinking about "nativeness" as more and more species expand or contract their ranges as a result of climate change.
Like you, I explored my own discomfort through the lense of "invasive" lizards in South Florida: http://www.rangerlarry.com/sneaking-suspicions/foreign-lizards
Keep up the great work!
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment, Larry, and for the words of encouragement! "There are no moral imperatives in ecology." That really resonates. We humans - even those of us with the best intentions towards conservation and preservation of the natural world - do seem always to be ranking or prioritising particular species over others, based on such moral imperatives. Moral imperatives entirely of our own creation, and nothing to do with nature itself. And thanks so much for sharing that link - I look forward to having a listen!
I admit that until about a year ago, I didn't understand what all the native plant hubbub was about. I'm somewhat better informed now, and it saddens me to see that this issue, like so many others, can be polarizing. Some of those advocating for more native plants have become zealots to the point of demanding that all non-natives be removed from a landscape. They make no distinction between invasive and non-invasive species. I have a lot more energy for tackling invasives run amok in our garden than for purging our space of flowering perennials that just happen to have been introduced at some point in the past.
Yes, that’s a subtle but important distinction! Native plants too, of course, can be invasive, or at least they can thuggishly prevent other species from flourishing. In an ideal world, I think, our plants would be as useful/beneficial to as many other species (including humans, bugs, animals, etc) as possible. Often that means native, though non-native plants can still be of value. But actually, I also think that there’s still a place in our gardens for frivolously useless plants, if they bring us pleasure!
An interesting article on non-native trees https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/9790453/Non-native-trees-are-not-the-enemy.html
How fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing, Jo!
It makes a lot of sense
Oh for sure. So many of our native species are under threat of being wiped out by various pests and diseases - if we were to get rid of all the non-natives too, we’d be left with a whole lot of nothing!
I had heard of Tree of Heaven. It sounded like another beautiful exotic that would not survive our tough Northern Vermont winters. However, after reading your post, I found it listed in Vermont Invasive Species list and found 4 Vermont sightings of it recorded on the INaturalist APP. So it is here. I am making a feeble effort to combat buckthorn, which I see everywhere now that I know what it looks like. It is a handsome bush/tree. I heard it is used for hedges in England. The county forester tells us that we can expect to lose all our large Ash trees to Emerald ash borer in the next 5 to 10 years. They make up 20% of the trees on our property. We will never get rid of the buckthorn and we will not be able to save the ash. Alas, this reads as a metaphor of our current state of national/world affairs. I will keep my eye out for Tree of Heaven.
I had a look at the equivalent recorded entries for Japanese knotweed here on Long Island, and although there are a good few on there, I have seen at least a dozen that no one has reported. From what I can tell, folk here don’t seem to be too bothered by it (or aware of its status as an invasive plant). And actually, as bullyish as it may be, it is quite striking to see the knotweed in large swathes like this - back home in London it tends to get reported and removed before it can get anywhere near this size. As for the Tree of Heaven, so far I haven’t seen it form any large monoculture clusters, but rather is integrating itself quite attractively among the native species. Sad to hear about your Ash trees - in the UK Ash Dieback is wiping out ours at lightning pace. The native oaks are under threat too. And European olives are in trouble. We might come to view Tree of Heaven & Co in a more favourable light…
We may yet come to depend on these robust, resilient immigrants.
Many came to those shores with no dream, rather horror and trauma. And the creation of that US of A depended on those robust and resilient people from the get go!
But I get your point 😜
You’re absolutely right, Frances, of course. There are layers of complexity - and terrible cruelty - that I didn’t touch on in my post. You’re right to do so here, thank you.