After many years at the Tree House, I thought I knew all the trees in the area. Until one year, when I ventured off the trail searching for a quiet place to have a picnic dinner, I discovered a tree unknown to me. Its bark looked as smooth and silvery as a beech tree, but its branching and leaves were completely different. Compound leaves, opposite branching, and clustered flowers, I knew it wasn’t a native tree. Using my new phone app, leafsnap, I narrowed down the possibilities. Korean Evodia (Tetradium daniellii) also known as the Bee-Bee Tree, seemed like the best bet. A remnant of the Andorra Nurseries, the largest specimen here is probably 35 feet tall, 14 inches in diameter, and found along the newly constructed Red Trail overlooking Forbidden Drive.
A somewhat small tree, it has been promoted as a nice summer flowering tree, with clusters of white flowers similar to Elderberry. But it is most prized by beekeepers. Flowering in July and August, the tree provides nectar for bees when other sources are scarce. According to beekeeper sources, the tree provides a fruity tasting honey. It is in the same family as citrus trees (perhaps why honey from hives in our area tastes so good), and its leaves smell citrusy when lightly crushed. Beekeeping websites suggest that beekeepers plant Bee-Bee seeds and within seven years the tree will produce the prized flowers. In the fall, the seed pods are reddish to purple and contain small shiny black seeds that are eaten and spread by birds.
There are dozens of small trees that have come up from seed in the Andorra area, which explains why the tree is on the invasive plant “watch list” in Pennsylvania. Search for the tree this summer and look up. Perhap you will see some of our area’s finest honeybees enjoying the nectar of summer!
The above article was written by Environmental Education Planner Trish Fries for the Summer 2014 edition of the Friends of the Wissahickon Newsletter. Little did we know, that same year, the spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula (White), was discovered in Berks County, PA, and would soon exemplify the destruction one invasive species can cause, with the Bee-Bee tree in the center of it all.
The spotted lanternfly entered the United States on what was thought to be a shipment of stone from China into Berks County, PA. However, because this leafhopper potentially was not discovered until a few years after its arrival, the official origin and spread rate are unknown.
Native to Southeast Asia, the lanterfly is a true bug with a piercing-sucking mouth piece that sucks sap from trees and other plants. Their prefered tree is the Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) also known as ailanthus, invasive in the United States, but native to Southeast Asia and to the lanternfly. However, it is not their exclusive choice. They will feed on over 70 other species of plants both native and non-native, including fruit trees and vines. This poses a devastating agricultural disaster both ecologically and economically. Its current spread throughout Pennsylvania, and adjoining states, has already decimated some orchards and vineyards.
The lanternfly was first discovered in the Wissahickon in fall of 2017 on a Bee-Bee tree near the Tree House by one of our educators, Maris Harmon, while hiking with a group of children. We killed the few adults found. We had just learned about (more like been warned about) the lanternfly by a visitor who lived in Montgomery County and knew the devastation that was headed our way. Although we did not see any more adults, or eggs, we began consuming information about this new invasive insect, and preparing to teach others about it.
The next summer, we searched the Ailanthus trees for any sign of lanternfly eggs or nymphs. Nothing. Then Trish remembered the stand of bee-bee trees that she wrote about in the above article. She connected the tree's Asian origin and likeness to the Ailanthus, and thought the area was a perfect, potential feeding ground. On our first hike back to that large bee-bee tree along the Red Trail above Forbidden Drive, we were stunned. There they all were- the beautiful, red-winged, yellow abdomined, true to their name, lanternflies. And so began our battle with these bad bugs, which continues to intensify with each season that passes.
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