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West Virginia Trees

Chapter 126: WHITE ASH
By A. B. Brooks
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Nature/Gardening/Animals

About This Book

A practical field guide to the native and introduced trees of West Virginia, providing keys based mainly on leaves and fruits, concise family and species descriptions, and detailed line drawings for about 101 native species. It organizes trees by botanical families, gives brief flower notes, a glossary of terms, and suggestions for identifying specimens; occasional introduced species and shrubs are noted. The bulletin emphasizes simplicity for non-specialists, offers measurements and habit descriptions for each species, and includes administrative prefatory material. Its aim is to aid lay readers and students in tree identification and to encourage local interest in forestry.

WHITE ASH

Fraxinus americana, L.

Form.—Height 50-100 feet, diameter 2-4 feet; trunk usually long and free from branches for many feet; crown pyramidal and open.

Leaves.—Opposite, pinnately compound, 8-12 inches long; the 7-9 leaflets 3-5 inches long, ovate or lance-oblong, pointed, nearly or quite entire, glabrous, dark green above, pale and either smooth or pubescent beneath.

Flowers.—May; dioecious; the staminate in dense red-purple clusters; the pistillate in loose panicles.

Fruit.—Matures in early autumn, and persists into the winter; samaras 1-2 inches long in drooping paniculate clusters.

Bark.—Furrowed deeply, the ridges firm, narrow, flattened, brownish-gray.

Wood.—Heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, tough and elastic, brown with thick sapwood.

Range.—Nova Scotia to Minnesota, southward to Florida and Texas.

Distribution in West Virginia.—Common throughout the State.

Habitat.—Grows in many situations, but prefers rich moist loamy soil.

Notes.—The White Ash is one of our valuable timber trees, producing wood which is manufactured into agricultural implements, wagons, furniture, tool handles, and interior finish. It is by far the most common Ash but is nowhere abundant.