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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.
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