A question about ashes
Seeing the narrator describing how “ashes” grow and take different types of shapes, I first thought the word meant trees. But then I got confused when I saw the word “ash” used in “ash-gray man.” The mention of “gray land” and “the spasms of bleak dust” made me think I might be wrong.

I guess my question is: Are they trees grow in polluted air?

Excerpt:
About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to
shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley
of ashes — a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges
and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of
houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a
transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling
through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls
along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to
rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades
and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure
operations from your sight. But above the gray land and the spasms
of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a
moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.
-- The Great Gatsby ch. 2Sorry I accidentally sent out a repeated question. Is there anyway to retract it? :p

Question

A question about ashes
Seeing the narrator describing how “ashes” grow and take different types of shapes, I first thought the word meant trees. But then I got confused when I saw the word “ash” used in “ash-gray man.” The mention of “gray land” and “the spasms of bleak dust” made me think I might be wrong. 

I guess my question is: Are they trees grow in polluted air? 

Excerpt:
About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to
shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley
of ashes — a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges
and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of
houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a
transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling
through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls
along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to
rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades
and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure
operations from your sight. But above the gray land and the spasms
of bleak dust which drift endlessly over it, you perceive, after a
moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg.
-- The Great Gatsby ch. 2Sorry I accidentally sent out a repeated question. Is there anyway to retract it? :p

Answer

The ashes collect in piles which after a time begin to look like trees, houses, gardens, etc.  However, it is all an illusion.  It is still just grey ash, only piled in a way that makes it look like something it is not.
The image we are supposed to get in our minds from this very good writing is a land made entirely of ashes.

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