Empress Tree???

racknabout

We purchased three immature trees earlier this year that were supposed to be Royal Empress Trees. They do not look like photos of mature trees we have seen on the internet. Take a look and let me know what you think. If this is not an Empress tree, what might it be?

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treevet

Tree you were supposed to get is called "Royal paulownia" or "Empress Tree", considered by many to be an undesirable weed tree for many reasons. The leaf is like a catalpa, being very large and heart shaped. Empress has different color and shape flowers and fruit but outside of that they are confused often.

I think your tree is a black walnut or some type of Juglans.

blair duncanson

Have you got a photo of the leading bud on the central stem? Juglans...maybe, never seen them that young in a garden.?

treevet

definitely would not want Juglans near a garden bcs of allelopathy. Juglonines will inhibit growth of tomatoes and other plants near it's roots.

racknabout

I'll get some more pictures and post them ASAP.

racknabout

Here are some more detailed picture of the tree from this evening. It has grown remarkably in just a few months. Please tell me what this is if anyone knows. The tree nursery says they will send us more of the correct tree but I would like to know what the three trees we planted actually are.

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treevet

Ailanthus, Tree of Hell (Heaven) You got ripped off!

racknabout

What is that? Should we kill it?? We have three and I have given them tender loving care...

Sean Freeman

Oh dear.....surely the nursery would have been able to recognise these even as saplings???

__________________
Sean

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran

treevet

Like any other human being I am capable of being wrong. I think this an Ailanthus, Tree of Heaven, Stink Tree. If so it is a super fast growing tree that can blow apart on sound wood on a mildly breezy day.

I have reviewed your pictures and found no evidence of any target (something for worry in regards to the tree falling on when it becomes a little larger). If you want a fast growing fern-like tree, this is your guy. This does not alter the fact that you were sold an Empress tree and received something else. Do you have any recourse, or more accurately do you want to take any recourse?

People around here cut or mow them down as soon as they are identifiable. I took a dead limb off one last week that is 110 feet tall and prob. about 30 years old. It is in a woods and buffered by other trees that have kept it from falling.

treevet

I posted concurrently with not seeing Sean's post. Yes, talk to the Nursery. It is definitely NOT an Empress Tree.

racknabout

They were sent to us as bareroot trees with no leaves, but why would a nursery keep these much less send them out?? It is most definitely the tree you have identifed. We have observed the same trees all down the rural roads in this region, we just didn't know what they were.

The nursery didn't argue at all (sounded like they had made this mistake before) and they are going to send us the correct trees in November, so no problem there but we have lost a year of growth on what should have been the correct trees.

What is the best way to remove the Ailanthus? Dig it up or use herbicides? They are about 6 feet tall and have grown that much since March when they were 12". Thanks so much for helping us solve this!

treevet

Whenever you can get rid of an unwanted plant without herbicides it is for the better. You can probably dig these out and look out for others popping up. Alex Shigo, renowned Arborist used to say, "if you want to kill a plant, just keep taking the foliage off".

Just to be forewarned, the Royal Paulownia tree many years ago I remember used to be in many magazines and newspapers touted as "the tree that will grow while you watch, capable of putting on 10 feet of growth per year". People got wise to this or learned the hard way what a tree that grows that fast gives you and you never see this ad anymore.

Galbee

And one last point they are an irritant to skin i use skin block and long sleeves when dismantling them Alianthus alitisima grrrr.

Bernard Keays

It certainly looks like Ailanthus altissima 'Tree of Heaven'. The only other tree I would probably confuse it with would be Cedrela odorata 'Cigar box cedar'. Both aren’t commonly grown round here but I can state that they are definitely not Paulownia, your ‘Empress Tree'. Could I suggest you send some photos back to the nursery questioning what you received? They are in the business of supplying plants and they need to know what there doing.

__________________
Bernie

Ekka

Much the same problem here with cocos palms. Well, was till they declared them a weed, now they sell them to Victorians instead.

At least the nursery righted the wrong doing.... just makes you wonder how many others they flogged off "by mistake".

How about over here with the fiasco of the nursery supplying the wrong Elms for that Camperdown project!

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Galbee

Blimey if you are going to confuse elms you definitely wouldn't want to end up with dutch elms thats bad.

treevet

Wasn't aware of the existence of a "Dutch" elm. When people around here often say my dutch elm is dying of a disease they are corrected and told that their English, American, or what have you...elm is dying of Dutch Elm disease. The disease, not the tree, is of Dutch origen.

Galbee

sorry local dialect and a bad habit of not using the latin i shall endeavour to think before opening mouth/ typing. appologies

treevet

It says "Dutch" in the context of that news blurb too. I figured I was the one that was wrong.

Galbee

We use Dutch Elm for U. x Hollandica
English Elmfor U. procera
and Wych Elm for U.glabra
we also have cornish, wheatley, pot, fluttering and Huntingdon Elms

kiwi_tree_steve

this is what ive been taught too

__________________
"You have to feel and touch a tree" Shigo

treevet

Thanks Galbee and Steve, I learned something today. Did Ophiostoma ulmi, the fungus that causes DED have it's origen or was it first discovered in the Dutch Elm?

A very wealthy lady, Doris Duke, that lived in the same town as I did, is said to have imported the logs that brought DED to the US. She is long ago passed on.

Back in the 20's large companies like Bartlett, etc. used to suit up in totally white lab outfits from head to foot and were quite a site I am sure, while treating for DED. We lost credibility again as a profession in that increment when it, of course, did not work at all. There were labor camps back in that era of the Great Depression, and I have met clients that participated, that their entire job was removing elms with DED. Would love to see some video of that time and the primitive equipment removing those huge trees without a central leader.

On another thread we are chatting about codoms and this is said to be a major vector for the disease. A tree with codoms may not initially have included bark, but may "grow into" having it and this illustrates another need for proper pruning and NTP Cuts to avoid an entrance to susceptible elms when the fungus is in the immediate vicinity either through the included bark or an improper pruning cut (or possible by an arb wearing spikes while pruning).

blair duncanson

Do not think Dutch Elm Disease originated in Holland. Cannot remember where it originated but i am pretty sure that it was the Dutch who first investigated the disease?

treeseer

Ailanthus can be ID'd by scratching and sniffing the bark; you can find out why "pisswood" is another common name.

I like them in the cities on sites where little else will grow.
Nowhere else though.