Index / Search / Ailanthus altissima
§1 Plant
Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle
vernacular tree of heaven — species · Simaroubaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Tree
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Simaroubaceae DC.
- Genus
- Ailanthus
§2a
Native status, by region
- CAN Canada Introduced
- HI Hawaii Introduced
- L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
§2b
County-level range
· 4 counties across 1 state§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Medium
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Medium
- Fire
- Medium
- Salinity
- Medium
- Anaerobic
- Medium
- CaCO₃
- High
- Hedging
- Low
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -18 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 150 min.
- Precipitation
- 14–90 in/yr
- pH range
- 4.1–7.9
- Root depth
- 30 in min.
- Fertility need
- Low
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Stem
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Lifespan
- Short
- Mature height
- 55 ft
- Height @ 20 y
- 50 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Moderate
- Porosity (winter)
- Moderate
- Flower colour
- Green
- Fruit colour
- Yellow
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- Moderate
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Late Spring
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Fall
- Spread rate
- Rapid
- Stratify
- Yes
- Seeds / lb
- 14,640
- Propagation
- seed, cuttings, bare root, container
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- Yes
- Browse palatability
- Medium
- Graze palatability
- Low
- Palatable, human
- No
- Protein potential
- Low
- Lumber
- Yes
- Fuelwood
- Low
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 4 counties across 1 state.
Rhode Island view state ↗ 4 I ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/AIAL ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/3190653 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25
fetched 2026-05-25T18:27:19Z