The Ugliest of Trees?

If that tree in my last post was the lovliest I see out my window, could this one be its opposite?

It may be an Ash tree as they are one of the last to leaf out, but as I gazed at it this morning, Boxelder popped into my mind.

Which made me think of my years at Jasper #2 school and all the Boxelder trees growing there, especially along the little creek that flowed around the south and west sides of the school grounds.

There was a Boxelder growing next to the driveway. It had begun to rot (a common fault with those trees, along with their disposition toward limb breakage) and the exposed cavity was teeming with boxelder bugs.

It fascinated me that there were so many of them crawling over one another, busy moving this way and that without any purpose that I could see. What I remember most though was their horrible stink. And how they not only were in and on the tree, but also how they got into the school house. As the weather cooled, they would almost coat the south and east sides where the sun shone.

I also remember being surprised that the Boxelder was related to the Maple, though if I had paid attention to their seeds (the samaras that look little helicopters), I could have figured it out. 

No tree is really ugly in my opinion, but this one, yet to fully leaf out, took me back down memory lane this morning. 😉