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L’uso dei materiali e il catalogo per Angelo Mangiarotti: la forma non si impone ma si ottiene per incastri, gravità e resistenza. Il libro Framing the Project (Corraini) ne ripercorre il gesto
ISSUE NO. 31
A visitor setting foot on the shores of Ischia, a Mediterranean island off the coast of Naples, and glancing at the island’s greenery for the first time wouldn’t find themselves looking at the Heather (Calluna vulgaris), the Euphorbia (Euphorbia dendroides), the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus), the Laurel (Laurus Nobilis), the Myrtle (Myrtus), or the Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus), the species of shrubs and small trees that characterize the Maquis shrubland (Macchia Mediterranea) this region’s biome. What they would be met with is a tree commonly known as the Tree of Paradise (Ailanthus Altissima), a species originating from China and North Vietnam.
This tree species is a perennial, dioecious, and deciduous one, which can reach a height of seventy to 100 feet and flowers between the months of June and July. This Angiospermae plant is known for emitting an unpleasant smell, its biodeterioration potential, and its high management costs.
The Ailanthus Altissima can adapt itself to numerous types of terrain. This thermophilic species can resprout when cut and withstand drought, atmospheric pollution, steep temperature changes, and salt in the soil. Its ability to adapt to harsh environments makes it a pioneer species.
Each year, the trees belonging to this species can produce up to millions of seeds.
The Seed dispersal mode through which this plant reproduces is wind dispersal or anemochory, but its reproduction can happen through hydrochory and zoochory.
The Ailanthus Altissima spreads along roadsides and railways, in uncultivated areas, in bushes, along embankments and riverbeds, in urban areas, and on abandoned buildings. Due to its ability to grow on walls, it can be a threat to monuments and historical buildings.
The Ailanthus Altissima plants have a lifespan running from thirty to fifty years. Still, despite their short lifespan, they manage to colonize spaces and prevent the growth of native species in occupied environments.
Upon expanding beyond its native lands via anthropogenic action, the Ailanthus Altissima has reached all continents aside from Antarctica, becoming a globally invasive species.
Due to its considerable seed production, which allows for swift takeovers, and the plant’s ability to spread by suckers, the Ailanthus is widely classified as an invasive species and can displace native trees.
This tree has become ubiquitous in the Mediterranean and can be found anywhere from Portugal to Greece. In the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, the Ailanthus Altissima is an invasive alien species (IAS) one threatening the local Flora and ecosystems.
Plants are alien to a specific region when humans have introduced them to this new area. There, they can enact biological invasions, decreasing local plant species diversity and altering soil nutrient cycling processes and the local biological communities.
According to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), invasive alien species (IAS) are those whose introduction and proliferation outside their native past or present distribution area endangers biological diversity.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), which was called for in 2000 by the then United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan, lists invasive alien species as one of the primary causes of biodiversity loss along with phenomena like habitat degradation, climate change, and pollution.
The Ailanthus Altissima was added in 2004 to the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO)’s list of invasive alien plants.
The Ailanthus Altissima isn’t, in fact, the sole plant that has become invasive in Mediterranean areas. Plants from the Eucalyptus and the Acacia genera originating from Australia are invasive in the Mediterranean ecosystems of Europe.
These plants’ presence and impact in these regions have even made their way into the world of fiction, being referenced in the novel The Island of Missing Trees, a 2021 work by the Turkish-British novelist Elif Shafak, which is set between the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and North London.
The Ailanthus Altissima was originally brought to Europe in the 1740s as a decorative plant from the collection of a Jesuit priest who mistook it for a lacquer tree. In Italy, where it is known as ‘ailanto’, ‘albero del Cielo’, and ‘Albero di Paradiso’, this species was recorded around 1760 at the Botanical Garden of Padua, while between 1784 and 1786, it could be found in the Botanical Gardens of Tuscany.
After Friar P. Fantoni introduced the saturniid moth Samia Cynthia, which was used to substitute the domestic silk month in the production of silk in 1856 in Piedmont, the Ailanthus Altissima was bred by this new branch of the silk industry. Later on, this plant was employed in Italy as a waterfront plant and in tree-lined avenues until the 1930s.
It was growing spontaneously in 1856 in the Northern Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige, while the same was happening in Veneto and Sicily. The Ailanthus Altissima has been a naturalized plant in all Italian regions for thirty years, and it has become prevalent, especially in the country’s Southern areas. It is one of the few trees capable of surviving and reproducing in all three Italian biogeographical regions (Badalamenti et al., 2012).
A team of researchers from the Department of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Naples Federico II and the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli has investigated the anthropogenic and climatic conditions that have influenced the diffusion of Ailanthus Altissima in Campania, a Mediterranean region located on the Tyrrhenian side of Southern Italy and the most densely populated region in the Mediterranean country with more than 400 inhabitants per square kilometer.
The research published in 2021 in the scientific journal Plant Ecology has revealed a link connecting the presence of roads and that of Ailanthus Altissima at low elevations and one with temperatures at higher elevations in the region.
For the study, carried out between May 2018 and October 2019, the researchers analyzed the presence of Ailanthus Altissima in 120 study areas in the five provinces of Campania in relation to twenty geographical and topographical, and climatic variables to determine the factors influencing the distribution of Ailanthus Altissima in the region.
In this study, the data collected from surveys were analyzed by visualizing the frequencies of occurrence (presence/absence) of the Ailanthus. The observations were standardized based on the total number of observations, and sampling points were grouped according to their proximity to different land uses. Each variable, such as road distance, altitude, and distance from urban centers, was divided into classes using the Statistica 10 software, with specific ranges and class amplitudes for each variable.
From their analysis, it has emerged that the distance from the roadside influences the occurrence of Ailanthus. As the distance from the road increases, there is a higher likelihood of Ailanthus being absent, with no occurrence of Ailanthus plants found beyond 500 meters from roads (Motti, Zotti, Bonanomi, et al., 2021).
A group of researchers from the University of Madrid, the University of Sevilla, and St. Catharine’s College analyzed the potential effects on Europe’s ecosystem services under current and projected climate conditions of four invasive alien species, the Ailanthus Altissima, the Baccharis halimifolia, the Impatiens glandulifera, and the Pueraria Montana.
Their findings were then published in 2022 in the international, interdisciplinary journal Ecosystem Services. From their research, it emerged that these four invasive plants are predicted to expand under the expected future climate change scenarios with a northwards expansion that will impact the United Kingdom and Ireland and critical ecosystem services becoming more vulnerable to the spread of invasive species as a result of climate change (Pérez, Vilà, Gallardo, 2022).
Ailanthus Altissima known as tree of heaven, ailanthus, varnish tree, copal tree, stinking sumac, Chinese sumac, paradise tree, or in Chinese as chouchou is a deciduous tree in the family Simaroubaceae. It is native to northeast and central China, and Taiwan. Unlike other members of the genus Ailanthus, it is found in temperate climates rather than the tropics.
ISSUE NO. 31
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