According to Alan Weisman, if New York City were to be abandoned, the species that would thrive would be option C. The Chinese ailanthus tree. According to Weisman, in the post-people world there would be no one to patch New York City and so after the weeds, the species that would thrive would be the exotic Chinese ailanthus tree, also known as tree-of-heaven. These trees are implacable invaders, capable of rooting everywhere, unnoticed until their leaves start poking from the sidewalk grates.
