A Walk Down Warren Street---Part One 800/700 block

Let's face it:  Hudson isn't an oasis of urban forestry. As matters stand now, it'll never be Tree City USA. Most of its north side is so scandalously bare of trees that one is faintly surprised to come across mere bushes and shrubs.  Yet, for the arborist, Hudson has its attractions.  Recently ( after searching for weeds on Union Street) I've been exploring plant life on Warren Street and have made some interesting discoveries.  
     In the 800 block, one of the first major trees I encountered is a southern species near the limit of its range.  Northern Catalpas (Catalpa speciosa) abound in the lower elevations of Columbia County; the specimen near the corner of Warren & Worth is a real showstopper. Mid-June, I photographed it in bloom:

Catalpa in bloom

orchid-like flowers

                             Catalpa flowers look like orchids and exude a faint perfume. 


            This week (July 11) I checked this tree out again, and saw that it had set fruit:

     Southerners call the catalpa the "cigar tree", but to me the unripe fruit looks like stringbeans. Inside the pods are not beans, but a fibrous mass that develops by early fall into fluffy seeds ready to be dispersed on the winter winds. 
     Today (July 13) I was startled to see a specimen of this semitropical-looking tree near Tannersville, in the heart of the Catskill highlands, which makes me rethink my notion of catalpa as at the edge of its range. It was in bloom, (a month later than in Hudson) and seemed to thrive at 2,000 feet up in the mountains. 
---------

     Of the 130 species of maple (most of which are Asian) probably none is more valued than the North American sugar maple. It provides us with timber, shade, beauty and a delectable condiment.  So I thought when I found some likely subjects on the 800 block. Alas,
they are NOT sugar maples, but Norway maples.   Acer platanoides is often confused with sugar maple; the way to distinguish between them is to pull off a leaf and check the sap. 
If it's clear, it's a sugar maple; if it's milky it's a Norway. And what we have on Warren Street are Norway maples, native to Europe, and considered by New York State as an invasive plant. According to Sylvia Ramsey Kaufman & Wallace Kaufman's excellent Invasive Plants (2007), after the mass die-off of elm trees in the 1930s and 40s, many American towns planted Norway maples in their stead.   Main problem with Norways is that they are shallow-rooted, so they tend to collapse in high winds. But in Hudson, they are thriving-- look at the seeds on this tree:

Norway maple: an invasive alien?

     Speaking of invasive aliens, right after I spotted the Noway maple, my attention was drawn across the street to the Neefus photo studio building. There, on the side, was a  young Ailanthus.  Everybody knows these: thery're kind of graceful and look like walnut trees but there the similarity ends.  Ailanthus altissima will grow practically anywhere, even in tiny cracks in concrete. Plus, it tolerates polluted soil and air. The leaves have an unpleasant musky odor. Kaufman & Kaufman report that Ailanthus was brought to the U.S. from China in 1748. From the looks of things, it is doing just fine in Hudson in 2013. 

Ailanthus: a tree grows in Hudson

Postscript July 21, 2013: Noticed today that this tree is gone. Thew crew renovating the Neefus building cut it down. Oh well: there are plenty more Ailanthus in town.