Day 43: invasive species

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OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT!

a matter of perspective

Quarantine Day 43: You're staying at home maintaining your social distancing. We are exploring the woods, muddy places and vacant lots to see where nature is happening.

Tonight's story is a matter of perspective. 

Empress tree (Paulownia tometosa) is now blooming here. (Bottom photo) Its purple flowers hang in panicles. In Japan, the wood is prized. By tradition, when a girl is born into the family this tree is planted. The tree grows quickly like the young girl and when she becomes old enough to marry the tree is cut and gifts are carved out of the wood for her dowry. It was imported into our part of the world for landscaping, is fast-growing and escaped. It is now labeled a non-native, invasive species and hated. (But not in Asia.) 

Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is now blooming here. (Top photo) Its white blossoms hang in loose drooping racemes. Here its wood is prized for its durability and rot-resistance. It was valued by our ancestors as being perfect for any wooden structure in contact with the ground included fence posts. It was imported into other parts of the world for landscaping, is fast-growing and escaped. It is now labeled a non-native, invasive species and hated. (But not here.)

Your backyard naturalist signing out. 

Ob-la-de, ob-la-da.

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