1. Fruit a samara; leaves pinnately compound 1. Fraxinus 



1. Fruit a drupe; leaves entire (2) 



2(1). Corolla lobes linear, many times longer than the tube, valvate; flowers in 

 pendulous panicles 2. Chionanthus 



2. Corolla wanting; flowers in small axillary clusters 3. Forestiem 



1. Fraxinus L. Ash 



Deciduous trees or very rarely shrubs; winter buds often superposed, with 1 or 2 

 pairs of outer scales, usually brown or black and scurfy, the outer pair sometimes 

 foliar (that is, obscurely pinnate at apex); leaves opposite, petioled, odd-pinnate, 

 rarely reduced to 1 leaflet; male and female flowers on separate plants or occasional 

 flowers may appear perfect; flowers small, in crowded panicles or racemes; calyx 

 small, 4-parted or -lobed or wanting: corolla of 2 to 6 (usually 4) distinct petals, 

 rarely connate at base or wanting; stamens usually 2; ovary 2-celled; stigmas 2; 

 fruit a samara or 1 -seeded nutlet with a usually elongated wing at the apex; seed 

 oblong, albuminous. 



About 70 species in the Northern Hemisphere. Ornamental trees with handsome 

 foliage, some with conspicuous flowers; several species are important timber trees. 



1. Plants in Oklahoma and the eastern two thirds of Texas from the eastern Pan- 

 handle through the central Edwards Plateau south to the upper 

 Gulf Coast (2) 



1. Plants in the western third of Texas, mainly in the Trans-Pecos, western 



Edwards Plateau and Rio Grande Valley, westward (4) 



2(1). Body of fruit compressed, its broad wing extending to the base; confined to 

 southeast Texas 1. F. caroliniana. 



2. Body of fruit terete or nearly so (3 ) 



3(2). Wing of fruit decurrent to about or below the middle of the fruit body; 



leaves lighter green but not noticeably pale on the lower surface 



2. F. pensylvanica. 



3. Wing of fruit terminal or only slightly decurrent on the fruit body; leaves 



usually pale-glaucous on lower surface, somewhat papillose on upper 

 surface 3. F. americana. 



4(1). Leaves and branchlets glabrous; wing of the fruit decurrent to or near the 

 base of the somewhat compressed fruit body; in the Texas Edwards 

 Plateau and Rio Grande Plains and Valley 4. F. Berlandieriana. 



4. Leaves and branchlets pubescent or glabrous; wing of the fruit (at most) decur- 



rent to above the middle of terete fruit body; in the Texas Trans- 

 Pecos region westward 5. F. velutina. 



1. Fraxinus caroliniana Mill. Carolina ash, pop ash, water ash. Fig. 620. 



Shrubby tree rarely more than 10 m. high and trunks to 3 dm. in diameter, the 

 winter buds chestnut-brown; branchlets terete, glabrous or pubescent; leaves with 

 terete petioles; leaflets 5 or 7, with slender petiolules to 2 cm. long, ovate-lanceolate 

 to elliptic or oblong, to 12 cm. long, broadly cuneate or sometimes rounded at the 

 base, acuminate at apex, serrate or rarely entire, pale-green and glabrous or spar- 

 ingly pilose on the veins or rarely pubescent beneath; anthers linear, apiculate, on 

 slender filaments; samaras rhombic to elliptic or obovate-oblanceolate, 3-5 cm. 

 long, acute to emarginate, the fruit body compressed and surrounded by the wing, 

 sometimes 3-winged. 



Usually in swamps and along rivers in s.e. Tex., Mar.-May; from Va. to Fla., 

 w. to Ark. and Tex. 



1303 



