After years in Houston watching the crappy Tallow weed out beautiful species
(and/or valuable plants like Bluestem) (including Cypress with knees
sticking up a foot or two twenty feet from the trunk) I sure hate to hear
of someone planting them on purpose!

Every time I fish under them at Lake Travis I wish I could just cut them on
down and use them for a camp fire! I mean, come on...the Cedars (Juniperus
Ashii) took over when the new-to-the-area whites cut down all the trees 150
years ago. Now, Tallow, with enough water, will take over from the Cedars!

sigh

Guess we'll permanently change the land several times before the local
ecology finds some way of putting up with us.

John


"Elliot Richmond" wrote in message
...
True story. We used to live in Southeast Texas, where the invasive
Chinese Tallow is widely considered to be a noxious weed. When walking
around in our yards, we habitually pulled up sprouting tallow trees,
much as one would pull up any weed. As a courtesy, we would do the
same in our neighbor's yards or when visiting friends.

One of my circle (call him Bob) was visiting in Arizona and stayed at
an RV park. As the evening softened, Bob took a stroll around the
campground and habitually pulled up a few tallow trees. The owner saw
him and threw a fit! he had planted the worthless things and paid good
money for them at a nursery.

Bob promised to send him a dozen or so decent sized tallow trees by
express mail as soon as he returned home, and did.

Elliot Richmond
Freelance Science Writer and Editor