Sunday, November 05, 2006

Union City, Connecticut

Sumac

These plants are considered a weed around here, and they do tend to thrive in places where most others would find the going pretty hard. But there's something about them that fascinates me. The wall here is part of the foundation for a bridge across the Naugatuck river.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your sumac is a bit different than our sumac.

Anonymous said...

These are ailanthus, no? Also called "tree of heaven".

In any case, another picture that gets a "lovely" from me.

Carl Weese said...

Michael, a quick check turned up this website: http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/aial1.htm

which says ailanthus is an invasive species easily confused with sumac. It's working its way north, but since it is described as having a distinctive and powerful odor I think the plants in the picture are native sumac, not the invading tree of heaven plant.