Monday, June 9, 2008

Maligned MagnificentTree of Heaven

What makes my property most unique is that it is also my personal self-ordanined wildlife reserve for the Tree of Heaven


( In spring they produce abundant sprays of tiny pale yellow flowers shaped like perfect five pointed stars. )







By June, in some places, overlapping leaves nearly block out the sun like a rain forest canopy.



Tiny yelow flowers float across the rippling surface of giant buckets of water for the dogs,






and fall in semi-equal spaces across giant cobwebs like stars across the sky.



(Sometimes still patterns on the blue grey cement form perfect pin-wheels.)

This tree is an amazing living creature, yet known in many places as trees from hell, or trash trees. They are usually destroyed, and never alllowed to grow into their breathtaking magnificance. I have let them grow freely on my property without direction or disturbance, and have an amazing forest of trees easily 20' and up to 40' high or more. They are exotic as their branches twist and turn. Often tiny trees grow from the branches and trunks. They are perrenial and bare in Winter. They start sprouting in March, and by June, in some places, overlapping leaves nearly block out the sun like a rain forest canopy. They continue growing through August, becoming thicker taller, and reaching out farther each year. Each tree and its multiple off-shoots can grow up to six feet a year.

In spring they produce abundant sprays of tiny pale yellow flowers shaped like perfect five pointed stars. The flowers produce a subtle, pungent and hypnotic, pervasive scent. With the wind, flowers fall through the air drifting like snowflakes and gathering along edges and in corners like snow. They float across the rippling surface of giant buckets of water for the dogs, and fall in semi-equal spaces across giant cobwebs and damp, dark soil like stars spread across the sky. On windy days spell-binding, patterns dance on cement and sparkle like jewels on the ground. Sometimes still patterns on the blue grey cement form perfect pin-wheels.

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