Sometimes I pen a letter to a newspaper, usually The Times or The Financial Times.
Usually I don’t have command of my subject but that doesn’t matter, as all I want is to be published. Here’s one from The Times a few days ago.
Sir, Matthew Parris (Notebook, May 22) deplores the spread of Ailanthus altissima and gives “tree of heaven” as its common name. Perhaps unconsciously, this name conveys approbation. It is also called a “ghetto palm”, and that is more descriptive of this invasive pest.
Christopher Bellew
London W6
“Tree of Heaven, introduced from China in the late 18th century, quickly became popular during a time when anything ‘Chinoiserie’ was the height of fashion. As its sucking tendencies became apparent there was then a pause in planting until the later 19th century, when its suitability as a pollution-proof street tree for industrial London was recognised.
Seemingly impervious to smoke and fumes, by the early 20th century Tree of Heaven was one of the most commonly planted trees in London, together with Plane, Lime and Poplar. It was deemed even more resilient than Plane, and recommended for planting in the ‘smokier districts’ of south and east London.
Being a relatively short-lived tree – most last for less than 70 years – Tree of Heaven is now much less visible than the Plane, but large specimens can still be seen, notably in Lambeth and Southwark, lining streets like Long Lane in the Borough.
A relatively easy tree to recognise throughout the year, Tree of Heaven has distinctive patterned bark and pinnate leaves (multiple leaflets on a single stalk). Resembling giant Ash leaves, they are probably the largest of any street tree, and can reach 60 – 70 cm long even on young trees.
Swaying in the breeze, these exotic-looking leaves, which on male leaves smell like old trainers, coupled with the species’ vigorous reproductive habit, gave rise to several popular names including Tree of Hell and, in New York, the Ghetto Palm.
In London I have seen no newly planted street trees, but many new arrivals sprouting from cracks in the pavement, railway embankments and other ‘edge lands’. Along with its ability to grow happily in the poorest of soils and survive extremes of drought and heat, this tenacity illustrates some of its attraction for early urban foresters.
While doing all this, though, Tree of Heaven also chemically poisons other plants in the vicinity, to ensure its own dominance.
So it’s a tree of two halves. On the one hand it is a large, graceful tree, disease-resistant and able to take most of the things London throws at it. On the other, it has hordes of unruly children, bad BO, and kills its neighbours. On balance, not a good thing to have on these honest streets.”
(London’s Street Trees; A Field Guide to the Urban Forest, Paul Wood, 2020)
“In the middle of composing The Planets, Gustav Holst wrote Japanese Suite at the request of a Japanese dancer named Michio Ito. Ito was appearing at the London Coliseum and wanted to dance to a work derived from traditional Japanese tunes. Holst didn’t know any tunes, so Ito actually had to whistle several to him.” (Gustav Holst website)