What is a trash tree?
 

Hello,

I have heard and read the expression "trash tree", but I don't know
what it means. If some trees are going to be offensive to my
neighbors, I want to know before I plant it! (And it's not as simple
as just asking my neighbors before buying. Lots of people don't know,
for example, what a blackgum, buckeye, or Euonymus is.)

So,
(1) What does the expression "trash tree" mean?
(2) How/where do I find out, before buying and planting, whether
species XYZ is a trash tree?

Thank you very much!

Ted Shoemaker

"trash trees" are trees that have short life spans, grow very fast, and have
weak wood. You could also use the trem to decribe trees that drop a large
amount of nasty fruit, large leaves, branches and the like. I dont know what
area you are in, but here in the midwest, trees like poplar, willow, silver
maple, sycamore, and paulownia fit this description.

Toad

"Marley1372" wrote in message
...
"trash trees" are trees that have short life spans, grow very fast, and
have
weak wood. You could also use the trem to decribe trees that drop a large
amount of nasty fruit, large leaves, branches and the like. I dont know
what
area you are in, but here in the midwest, trees like poplar, willow,
silver
maple, sycamore, and paulownia fit this description.

Toad

Sycamores don't drop stuff. They throw it, and sometimes with alarming
accuracy. :-)

Usually your county extension office can send you a list of trees NOT
recommended for your area (particularly for street trees). That list will
include most trees that are "trashy" in your area. In the northeast, Norway
maples are trashy - where I live they are behave relatively decently. Silver
maples are on nearly everyone's list, because of their propensity to drop
enormous limbs without warning - hence sometimes called widow-maker trees.
Cottonwoods and other poplars have similar behavior. Other trash trees are
in the eye of the beholder. No one who has ever stepped on a horse chestnut
(buckeye), a sweetgum ball, or a sycamore ball with a barefoot would ever
deliberately plant one in his yard. However, the fruit is not quite reason
enough to cut down what might otherwise be a gorgeous healthy tree. I
imagine that some people in the midwest have similar sentiments about osage
orange. And catalpas, while gorgeous in flower, can also drop limbs
occasionally, and for sure lots of big pods which don't go away by
themselves...
"Ted Shoemaker" wrote in message
om...
Hello,

I have heard and read the expression "trash tree", but I don't know
what it means. If some trees are going to be offensive to my
neighbors, I want to know before I plant it! (And it's not as simple
as just asking my neighbors before buying. Lots of people don't know,
for example, what a blackgum, buckeye, or Euonymus is.)

So,
(1) What does the expression "trash tree" mean?
(2) How/where do I find out, before buying and planting, whether
species XYZ is a trash tree?

Thank you very much!

Ted Shoemaker

Here is a good site for checking out particulars on trees.

http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/index.htm

Newt

Newt wrote in message ...

Here is a good site for checking out particulars on trees.

http://tinyurl.com/4s4f7

That is a very useful site. Thank you.

Ted Shoemaker

You're very welcome. I use it all the time.
Newt