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West Virginia Trees

Chapter 127: RED 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.

RED ASH

Fraxinus pennsylvanica, Marsh.

Form.—Height 30-65 feet, diameter 1-3 feet; trunk straight and clear with many upright branches which form a compact, broad, irregular crown.

Leaves.—Opposite, pinnately compound, 10-12 inches long, with 7-9 leaflets 3-5 inches long, oblong-lanceolate, taper-pointed, almost entire, pale or more or less pubescent.

Flowers.—May; dioecious; in downy panicles on shoots of the previous season.

Fruit.—Matures in early autumn and is persistent for several months; samaras 1-2 inches long, borne copiously in drooping clusters.

Bark.—Twigs usually pubescent, on old trunks rough with scaly dark gray-brown ridges.

Wood.—Heavy, hard, strong, brittle, light brown, with thick, yellow-streaked sapwood.

Range.—Vermont and Minnesota south to Florida and Texas.

Distribution in West Virginia.—Collected along New River, Fayette County; reported from Randolph, Upshur, Wood and Mason counties.

Habitat.—Prefers moist soils of river bottoms and borders of swamps.

Notes.—Red Ash is occasionally found along some of the streams of the State but does not grow in sufficient quantities to be of any commercial importance. It can usually be distinguished from the White Ash by its pubescent twigs and petioles, and its somewhat different fruits. A variety of this species, lanceolata, is also to be found in some places along the streams.