White Ash

Fraxinus americana

 

North America’s largest native Ash, the White Ash can grow to heights of 120 feet. Its shock-resistant wood was historically used by Native American for toolmaking, and still today is used for tool handles and sporting equipment such as hockey sticks, tennis racquets, canoe paddles, and baseball bats – namely Louisville Slugger baseball bats. Its leaves, bark, and edible fruit also have medicinal uses. Tea made from its bark can be used as an anti-inflammatory while the “juice” from its leaves has been known to relieve swelling and itching from mosquito bites.  

The following identification information is from Trees of Alabama, a Gosse Nature Guide by Lisa J. Samuelson. Use of this text was permitted by the University of Alabama. Order your own copy of this great guide to Alabama’s trees here: https://www.amazon.com/Trees-Alabama-Gosse-Nature-Guides/dp/0817359419

White Ash Fraxinus americana L.  

COMMON NAMES white ash  

QUICK GUIDE Leaves opposite, pinnately compound, usually with seven leaflets; leaflets are ovate; lateral bud sits within the crescent-shaped leaf scar; fruit a single samara with a broad wing extending to the top of the seed; bark brown-gray with interlacing ridges forming a diamond pattern, sometimes blocky.  

DESCRIPTION Leaves are opposite, pinnately compound, deciduous, and up to 35 cm (13.8 in) long, with five to nine leaflets. Leaflets are elliptical to ovate and 5-13 cm (2.0-5.1 in) long; margin is entire or remotely serrate; underside is pubescent or glabrous; autumn color is yellow to dull red. Twigs are moderately stout, gray-brown to green-brown, and glabrous or pubescent, with lenticels and flattened nodes; leaf scar is crescent shaped with bundle scars forming a U shape. The terminal bud is round, up to 8 mm (0.3 in) long, and dark chocolate brown, with suedelike scales; lateral bud is smaller and sits within the leaf scar. Flowers are dioecious; staminate flowers are red-green, short-stalked, and in dense, compact clusters; pistillate flowers are vase shaped and long-stalked, with an elongated style; flowers bloom before the leaves. Fruit is a single samara, elliptical to oblong and up to 5 cm (2 in) long; wing is fairly broad and extends to the top of the seed; fruit matures in the fall. Bark is brown-gray with interlacing ridges forming a diamond pattern; large trees are deeply furrowed and sometimes blocky. The growth form is up to 30 m (100 ft) in height and 1 m (3 ft) in diameter.  

HABITAT Moist, fertile soils of uplands, bottomlands, and edges of streams and rivers.  

NOTES Forest associates of white ash include red maple, sugar maple, American beech, tulip-polar, eastern white pine, white oak, northern red oak, black cherry, eastern hemlock, and American elm. The emerald ash borer, a wood-boring insect from Asia that attacks all species of ash, has recently been reported in Alabama. The wood is white to light brown, heavy, hard, stiff, and straight-grained, and is used for handles, veneer, furniture, crates, pallets, and sports equipment such as Louisville Slugger baseball bats. White ash is planted as a shade tree. The seed is eaten by a variety of birds and small mammals. White-tailed deer will lightly browse the foliage, and beaver eat the bark.  

Fraxinus is Latin for “ash tree”; americana refers to the New World.