HOP TREE (Wafer Ashj 

 Ptelea trifoliata L. 



June There it is. a small tree with glossy, pungent leaves 



Wooded hills shaped much like those of poison ivy, a tree with a dis- 

 asreeable odor and seeds which at first seem to resemble 

 those of slippery elm. A small, not conspicuous tree — hop tree or wafer 

 ash. It is related neither to the hops nor to the ashes, but belongs in the 

 same family as the citrus fruits. 



It is a curious aort of low tree. Only two members of its family — 

 hop tree and prickly ash — live as natives in Illinois; the remainder of 

 the family is Old World or iiative to the southern hemisphere. 



Hop tree actually is a tall shrub which gTows in hilly woods of 

 Illinois. It is never too common, but it is not really rare. The glossy, 

 three-parted leaves are bitter-aromatic, and are full of that characteristic 

 odor of hops. The leaves have attained their full size, compound in groups 

 of three, when the clusters of small greenish flowers, four or five jjarted 

 with a ])rotruding pistil and disagreeable odor, are in bloom. They are 

 follo\v(Mi by a loose, large cluster of winged fruits which are elm-like in 

 shape, a resemblance which is more striking later in the season when 

 they dry and| rattle in the winds of autumn and winter. Even in winter, 

 the hop tree possesses its curious odor, for the downy stems when broken 

 emit a marked scent reminiscent of tangles of hop vines (piivering in the 

 summer wind. 



The botanical name. Ptelea, was given to the hop lice because of 

 the elm-like shape of the seeds, for Ptelea is the Oreek name t'oi- the elm. 



11 T) 



