The White Ash (Fraxinus americana) is one of the largest of the ash genus Fraxinus, growing to 35 m tall. It is native to eastern North Americanhardwoodforests, it is a tree of mesophytic forests from Quebec to northern Florida. The wood is white, strong, and straight-grained. The name White Ash apparently derives from the glaucous undersides of the leaves. The leaves are 20-30 cm long, pinnately compound with 7 (occasionally 5 or 9) leaflets, 6-13 cm long.
This tree, like all ashes, is dioecious, with male and female flowers being borne on seperate trees. Flowering occurs in early spring after 30-55 growing degree days. The fruit when fully formed is a samara 3-5 cm long, the seed 1.5-2 cm long with a pale brown wing 1.5-3 cm long, and can be blown a good distance from the parent tree.
It is the timber of choice for production of baseball bats and tool handles
Fraxinusamericana 'Rosehill' - relatively poor yellowish bronzy red fall color, seedless, 50' tall by 30' wide, noteworthy for its tolerance to poor soils that are distinctly alkaline in pH
Fraxinusamericana 'Skyline' - orange-red fall color, male, 50' tall by 40' wide, often improperly used for street tree plantings due to its sentry-like, columnar growth habit in youth; however, it is more urban tolerant than the species form and most other cultivars
Fraxinusamericana is a shade tree of rounded growth habit and moderately rapid growth rate, having dense Summer shade, an excellent mixture of Autumn colors that usually terminates in burgandy-red, and a bold Winter bark and stem texture, but prone to diseases and pests as it matures.
Fraxinusamericana tends to have clearly stalked leaflets with whitened undersides.
On well developed branches of Fraxinusamericana the leaf scars are often concave along the upper edge and the buds originate well within the curved portion of the leaf scar.
Fraxinusamericana tends to occur primarily in upland forests, often with Acer saccharum.
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