Ed, Jenny, and James, The timing of this thread couldn't be any better. I had my first encounter with devils-walkingstick yesterday. I was measuring trees in a steep ravine along the Schuylkill River in SE Pa. I was halfway up the ravines slope when I stopped to measure a tall beech and hemlock. From there I could see the devils walkingstick under the canopy of the hemlocks along the small stream. From a distance they looked a little like young ailanthus, I wasn't sure what they were. As I made my way down the slope to measure the circumference of the beech and hemlock I made the mistake of grabbing onto the trunk of the devils walkingstick. A closer look revealed the tiny spines that covered it's trunk. I won't be doing that again! I would guess that most of them are between 20'-30'. I'll be returning to the ravine to measure a few other trees and I'll be sure to measure the devils walkingstick. Ed, I could try to get a ring count on some of the dead ones that have fallen.
George -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of James Parton Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 4:33 PM To: ENTSTrees Subject: [ENTS] Re: Devil's Walking Stick - Arilia spinosa Ed & Jenny, I can't ever remember finding Devils Walking Stick here in the mountains of North Carolina. If anyone would know it would be Will Blozan. I find the plant uniquely beautiful. Much like I do Hawthorn. James Parton On Mar 19, 10:46 am, "Edward Frank" <[email protected]> wrote: > Jenny, > > As uncomfortable as grabbing it may be for the hiker, Arilia spinosa is a native tree across much of eastern United States. It isn't clear if it actually is native to NYC, or if that is just beyond its native range. It was used in Victorian gardens as an ornamental, and the aromatic roots and fruit were used by settlers as home remedies...mainly for toothache. I am curious how large of trees they are removing? It certainly is not a highly thought of tree in any case. The tallest specimen in our database is 36 feet, and the fattest is 53.4 inches GBH. That is a pretty fat one, but I am sure there are many taller examples out there, we just don't measure that many of them. The oldest one we have found was one Jess Riddle noted cut along a trail at just 32 years old. Some of these pioneer species seem to just die before growing very old. I would be interested in ring counts from any larger or old specimens removed as part of the project. I personally am curious about many of these unwanted and oft overlooked species. > > Ed > . > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "JennyNYC" <[email protected]> > To: "ENTSTrees" <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 9:17 AM > Subject: [ENTS] Re: Hemlocks - HWA? > > The DEVIL is Aralia spinosa - Devil's Walking Stick. I joke a lot that > we are removing the Devil and the Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus) from the > Forest. Nobody really laughs though...I can't figure out if they don't > get it or the joke is just getting really really old or it just wasn't > that funny in the first place! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
