Part 26

Wood: Soft, heavy, dark brown.

Uses: Cabinets, baskets, fence posts.

Habitat: Swampy woods.

Range: Newfoundland across to Manitoba, south to Iowa, central Illinois, West Virginia, and Delaware.

Distinguishing Features: This is the only ash in Illinois where none of the leaflets has stalks.

RED ASH Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh.

Growth Form: Medium tree up to 60 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 2 feet; crown usually pyramidal; trunk straight, rather stout, sometimes slightly buttressed at base.

Bark: Light or dark gray, with diamond-shaped furrows between flat-topped, sometimes scaly ridges.

Twigs: Slender to rather stout, gray or brown, covered by velvety hairs, leaf scars opposite, half-round and straight across the top, with several bundle traces forming a half-moon.

Buds: Rounded, dark brown, finely hairy, about ¼ inch long.

Leaves: Opposite, pinnately compound, with 7-9 leaflets; leaflets elliptic to elliptic-ovate, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, up to 6 inches long, about ⅓ as wide, sparsely toothed along the edges, hairy on both surfaces.

Flowers: Staminate and pistillate on separate trees, appearing after the leaves have begun to open, minute, crowded in purplish or greenish dense clusters.

Fruit: A cluster of paddle-shaped fruits, each fruit up to 2½ inches long and less than ½ inch broad, with a single seed at one end.

Wood: Hard, strong, heavy, coarse-grained, pale brown.

Uses: Tool handles, interior finishing, furniture.

Habitat: Bottomland forests.

Range: Nova Scotia across to North Dakota, south to Kansas, east to Louisiana and northern Florida.

Distinguishing Features: Red Ash is characterized by its hairy leaf stalks and its narrow wings along the stalks between the leaflets.

GREEN ASH Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh var. subintegerrima (Vahl) Fern.

Growth Form: Medium tree up to 60 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 2½ feet; crown broadly rounded, with slender, spreading branches.

Bark: Light or dark gray, with diamond-shaped furrows between flat-topped, sometimes scaly, ridges.

Twigs: Slender to rather stout, gray or brown, smooth; leaf scars half-round and straight across the top, with several bundle traces forming a half-moon.

Buds: Rounded, dark brown, finely hairy, up to one-fourth inch long.

Leaves: Opposite, pinnately compound, with 7-9 leaflets; leaflets lance-shaped to elliptic, long-pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, up to 6 inches long and one-and-one-half inches wide, toothed along the edges, green and smooth on both surfaces. The leaflets turn reddish-brown or yellowish in the autumn.

Flowers: Staminate and pistillate flowers borne on separate trees, in branched clusters, appearing as the leaves begin to unfold, small, purplish, without petals.

Fruit: Lance-shaped or reversely lance-shaped, winged fruits, usually rounded at the tip, up to 2½ inches long and less than one-third inch broad, with a single seed at the base.

Wood: Hard, heavy, strong, light brown.

Uses: Interior finishing, tool handles, baseball bats; sometimes grown as an ornamental.