BLACK ASH (Fraxinus nigra, Marsh.). 50 to 90 feet. 

 Slender, upright tree with narrow head; twigs stout. Bark 

 close textured, dark gray, with interlacing furrows; twigs 

 smooth, gray, with pale lenticelso Wood brown, soft, heavy, 

 tough, splitting into annual layers along the porous spring 

 wood. Buds broadly ovate, almost black, granular-pubescent; 

 inner scales becoming leaf-like. Leaves in May, 12 to 16 

 inches long, of 7 to 11 oblong-lanceolate leaflets, all but term- 

 inal one sessile; margins with incurving teeth, upper surfaces 

 dark green, smooth; lower pale with rufous hairs in tufts 

 along pale midribs; fall early, after turning rusty brown. 

 Flowers May, before leaves, dioecious, in axillary panicles; 

 stamens dark purple with short filaments; pistils with long, 

 cleft, purple stigmas, often with abortive stamens below. 

 Fruit winged keys in open panicles, 8 to 10 inches long; seed 

 flat, short, surrounded by wing which is broad, thin, and con- 

 spicuously notched. Preferred habitat, deep, cold swamps 

 and stream borders. Dist.. Newfoundland and north shore 

 of Gulf of St. Lawrence to Manitoba; south to Delaware and 

 the mountains of Virginia, southern Illinois, central Missouri, 

 and northwestern Arkansas. Wood used for furniture, bas- 

 kets, chair bottoms, barrel hoops, etc. 



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