{"id":15419,"date":"2026-02-28T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=15419"},"modified":"2026-02-16T13:32:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:32:37","slug":"list-of-messy-trees-to-avoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2026\/02\/28\/list-of-messy-trees-to-avoid\/","title":{"rendered":"List Of Messy Trees To Avoid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When purchasing trees and shrubs for their yard, many gardeners should avoid species that drop lots of litter (fruits and\/or leaves) all spring and summer long. Landscape trees, among them crabapples, mulberries and Chinese (kousa) dogwoods produce fleshy or pulpy fruits that mess lawns, walkways and stained & sticky parked cars. Many, not all, are non-native and foraging birds and other wildlife are not interested in them for their food supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Foul Smelling Odor ginkgo fruits<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some plants are split into male and female, with the male flowers producing pollen and no fruits. Over the years these species are begun to dominate our yards and gardens. Ginkgo is one such example. Male ginkgoes produce no fruits because nursery producers sell grafted fruitless male clones. Ginkgoes produce foul smelling apricot looking fruits. When the ripened fruits fall on sidewalks, the area around them reeks with a terrible smell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crabapples <\/strong>(Malus spp.<\/em>) hail from Eastern Europe and Asia. Small, fruited forms, 5\/8ths inches or less in diameter, are consumed in late fall and winter by many bird species when natural food sources are sparse. Particularly avoid planting large-fruited cultivars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kousa dogwood <\/strong>(Cornus kous<\/em>a) is a lovely small flowering tree from China where the orangey-red fruits are consumed by monkeys. Most North American birds don\u2019t eat them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hackberry or sugarberry <\/strong>(Celtis spp.<\/em>)<\/strong> drops loads of tiny black berries to litter lawns and walkways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fleshy fruits of kousa dogwood in late summer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mulberries <\/strong>(Morus spp<\/em>.) produce soft pulpy fruits that stain sidewalks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buckeyes <\/strong>(Aesculus spp<\/em>.), Walnuts (<\/strong>Juglans spp.<\/em>), <\/strong>most oaks <\/strong>(Quercus spp<\/em>.) are nut-producing trees and shrubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ginkgo <\/strong>\/ maidenhair <\/strong>tree<\/strong> (Ginkgo biloba<\/em>) – female trees produce messy and odorous apricot-like fruits that will also slicken walkways, making them impassable. Many large towns and cities have banned the selling and planting of female ginkgo trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norway spruce <\/strong>(Picea abies<\/em>) <\/strong>and White Pine <\/strong>(Pinus strobus<\/em>) bear large cones that are litter problems on lawns and gardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Large cones of Norway Spruce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sycamores <\/strong>(plane trees) (Platanus spp<\/em>.) and Sweetgum <\/strong>(Liquidambar styraciflua<\/em>) are the \u201cGumball Trees\u201d that are a nuisance to foot traffic. Mowers with catch the dry gumball fruits and discharge them through a mower to break windows or dent metal siding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want More? How about pecan, northern Catalpa, pecan, cottonwood, hackberry, Kentucky coffeetree (female), silver maple, weeping willow, Southern magnolia, China Fir. These tree species drop loads of leaves, twigs, pollen, and fruits in your yard and driveway at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sycamore “balls”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When purchasing trees and shrubs for their yard, many gardeners should avoid species that drop lots of litter (fruits and\/or leaves) all spring and summer long. Landscape trees, among them crabapples, mulberries and Chinese (kousa) dogwoods produce fleshy or pulpy fruits that mess lawns, walkways and stained & sticky parked cars. Many, not all, are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,922,657,1082,1319,634,1660,1067,669,1498,645,800,10,1182,947,1172,1075,853,865,1263,1264,551,1476,1571,1262,1084,995,808,1174,729,777,630,705,831,781,1114,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15419"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15426,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15419\/revisions\/15426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}