Ash tree

Plant Characteristics

Habit		tree

Cultivation

Scientific Names

Oleaceae >

Fraxinus >

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Fraxinus (pronounced /ˈfræksɨnəs/) is a genus flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45-65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen. The tree's common English name, Ash, goes back to the Old English æsc, while the generic name originated in Latin. Both words also meant "spear" in their respective languages. The leaves are opposite (rarely in whorls of three), and mostly pinnately compound, simple in a few species. The seeds, popularly known as keys or helicopter seeds, are a type of fruit known as a samara. Rowans or Mountain Ashes are unrelated to true ashes and belong to the Genus Sorbus though the leaves and buds are superficially similar.

Read about Ash tree in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

European Ash in flower Narrow-leafed Ash (Fraxinus angustifolia) shoot with leaves Fraxinus (ancient Latin name). Oleaceae. Ash. Interesting trees grown chiefly for their handsome pinnate leaves and some species also for the conspicuous panicles of white flowers. Deciduous: lvs. opposite, odd-pinnate, without stipules: fls. in panicles, dioecious or polygamous, with or without calyx or with calyx and a 2-6-parted corolla with generally linear segms.; stamens generally 2; ovary 2-celled: fr. a 1-seeded, winged samara.—About 50 species in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere south to Cuba; 16 of them occur in the U. S. The ashes are ornamental trees, most of them hardy, with rather large leaves and small flowers in panicles, either appearing before the leaves and greenish, or in the subgenus Ornus after or with leaves and whitish in showy panicles: the winged fruit is insignificant. They are valuable as street and park trees, and grow mostly into tall, pyramidal or broad-headed trees, with rather light green foliage, which turns yellow or dark purple in fall or remains green, as in F. excelsior and F. ornus. The ash is seldom severely injured, though a number of insects and fungi prey on the leaves and wood, of which two borers, and a fungus attacking the leaves are perhaps the most obnoxious. Most of the species are hardy North except those from the southern states, southern Europe and Himalayas; of the subgenus Ornus, F. bungeana and F. longicuspis seem to be the hardiest. The ashes are important forest trees, and the straight- grained and tough wood is much used for handles of tools, in the manufacture of carriages and wagons, for the interior finish of houses, and for furniture, for baskets and also for fuel. From F. Ornus manna is obtained as an exudation of the trunk, and some Chinese species, especially F. chinensis and F. mariesii, yield the Chinese white wax. The ashes grow in almost any moderately moist soil, F. nigra being somewhat more moisture-loving, while F. oxycarpa, F. ornus, F. syriaca and F. cuspidata grow well even in drier situations. They are usually readily transplanted and grow rapidly when young. Propagation is by seeds gathered in fall and sown immediately, or stratified and sown in spring, covered with about 1 inch of good soil; sometimes they remain dormant until the second year. The varieties and rarer kinds are budded in late summer or grafted in spring on the seedlings of any of the common species. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

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Propagation

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Pests and diseases

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Species

Selected species^wp:

Eastern North America

• Fraxinus americana L. – White Ash
• Fraxinus caroliniana Mill. – Carolina Ash
• Fraxinus nigra Marshall – Black Ash
• Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marshall Green Ash
• Fraxinus profunda (Bush) Bush – Pumpkin Ash
• Fraxinus quadrangulata Michx. – Blue Ash
• Fraxinus tremillium – Indigo Ash

Western and southwestern North America

• Fraxinus anomala Torr. ex S.Watson – Singleleaf Ash
• Fraxinus berlandieriana DC. – Mexican Ash
• Fraxinus cuspidata Torr. – Fragrant Ash
• Fraxinus dipetala Hook. & Arn. – California Ash or Two-petal Ash
• Fraxinus dubia
• Fraxinus gooddingii – Goodding's Ash
• Fraxinus greggii A.Gray – Gregg's Ash
• Fraxinus latifolia Benth. – Oregon Ash
• Fraxinus lowellii – Lowell Ash
• Fraxinus papillosa Lingelsh. – Chihuahua Ash
• Fraxinus purpusii
• Fraxinus rufescens
• Fraxinus texensis (A.Gray) Sarg. – Texas Ash
• Fraxinus uhdei (Wenz.) Lingelsh. – Shamel Ash or Tropical Ash
• Fraxinus velutina Torr. – Velvet Ash

Western Palearctic (Europe, north Africa and southwest Asia)

• Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl – Narrow-leafed Ash or Caucasian Ash
  • Fraxinus angustifolia subsp. oxycarpa – Claret Ash or Raywood Ash
• Fraxinus dimorpha
• Fraxinus excelsior L. – European Ash
• Fraxinus holotricha Koehne
• Fraxinus ornus L. – Manna Ash or Flowering Ash
• Fraxinus syriaca
• Fraxinus pallisiae Wilmott – Pallis' Ash

Eastern Palearctic (central and east Asia)

• Fraxinus apertisquamifera
• Fraxinus baroniana
• Fraxinus bungeana DC. – Bunge's Ash
• Fraxinus chinensis Roxb. – Chinese Ash or Korean Ash
• Fraxinus chiisanensis
• Fraxinus floribunda Wall. – Himalayan Manna Ash
• Fraxinus griffithiiC.B.Clarke – Griffith's Ash
• Fraxinus hubeiensis
• Fraxinus japonica – Japanese Ash
• Fraxinus lanuginosa
• Fraxinus longicuspis
• Fraxinus malacophylla
• Fraxinus mandschurica Rupr. – Manchurian Ash
• Fraxinus mariesii – Maries' Ash
• Fraxinus micrantha Lingelsh.
• Fraxinus paxiana Lingelsh.
• Fraxinus platypoda
• Fraxinus raibocarpa Regel
• Fraxinus sieboldiana Blume – Japanese Flowering Ash
• Fraxinus spaethiana Lingelsh. – Späth's Ash
• Fraxinus trifoliata
• Fraxinus xanthoxyloides (G.Don) Wall. ex DC. – Afghan Ash

Read about Ash tree in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
{{{1}}} The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Gallery

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  Closeup of European Ash seeds

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  19th century illustration of Manna Ash (Fraxinus ornus)

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  photo 3

References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Ash tree. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Ash tree QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)