Nature & living things

The tree of heaven now runs a nursery for the spotted lanternfly

A plant celebrated enough to be called tree of heaven now ranks among the worst invasive species in both Europe and North America, and its damage has compounded in a way nobody planned for: the spotted lanternfly, itself an invasive pest, depends on it. Two introduced species reinforcing each other is a harder problem than either alone. It is also an oddity within its own genus, the one member that took to temperate climates instead of the tropics, which is part of why it travelled so well. Worth five minutes for how a fast, tough, unfussy tree became a liability.

It can reach about 15 metres in 25 years, yet the species seldom lives past 50 — though a few individuals push beyond a century.

Read the whole of Ailanthus altissima on Wikipedia

The article comes from Wikipedia and is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. The introduction above is our own.