American Forestry 



VOL. XXI 



DECEMBER, 1915 



No. 264 



White Ash 



Identification and Characteristics 

 By Samuel B. Detwiler 



IN OLD Norse legends the ash tree is called the Tree 

 of the Universe. This name is an appropriate one, 

 for ash wood is exceptionally strong and elastic for 

 its weight, and for centuries it has been highly valued 

 for the good qualities that make it so useful in the 

 modern world. The spear with which Achilles fought 

 had a shaft of ash; the 

 Indians made use of this 

 wood for bows, paddles 

 and canoes. Today ash 

 wood is used wherever 

 superior strength and 

 elasticity combined with 

 lightness in weight are re- 

 quired. Such uses range 

 from baseball bats and 

 snowshoe rims to musical 

 instruments and aero- 

 planes. Most of the ash 

 wood, however, is con- 

 sumed in car construc- 

 tion, axles, poles and 

 other parts of vehicles, 

 handles of all kinds, 

 wooden ware, agricul- 

 tural implements and fur- 

 rliture. 



Ash trees may be said 

 to be the most highly edu- 

 cated of our common 

 trees, since in the process 

 which has caused one 

 species to differ from an- 

 other, they have acquired 

 characteristics which bot- 

 anists recognize as being 

 very high in the scale of 

 plant development. There 

 are thirty or forty species 

 of ash in the world, grow- 

 ing mostly in the temper- 

 ate regions of the north- 

 ern hemisphere. In North 

 America, sixteen kinds of 



From "Pennsylvania Trees" by J, S. lllick 



THE WHITE ASH 



1. A branch with a cluster of pollen-bearing flowers and young leaves, one-half 

 life size. 2. A cluster of seed-bearing flowers. 3. A full-grown compound 

 leaf, one-half life size. 4. A cluster of fruit, one-half life size. 5. A winter,- 

 twig, one-half life size. 6. Section of a winter twig, enlarged. . 



ash trees are known. The olive-tree, the fringe-tree, the 

 lilacs, f orsythias and privets are all in the same family as 

 the ash, but the mountain ash is not related to the true 

 ashes. 



The white ash is the most beautiful and the most 

 useful of the American species, although in commerce 



the wood is seldom sepa- 

 rated from that of the 

 black, red, blue or green 

 ash, which are often 

 found growing with it. 

 white ash is native to a 

 wide territory, from New- 

 foundland and Nova Sco- 

 tia west to Minnesota and 

 south to Florida and 

 Texas. It is found on 

 rich, rather moist soil, 

 on low hills and near 

 streams, but it is not usu- 

 ally found in swamps such 

 as the black ash often 

 frequents. It is nearly 

 always found growing 

 mixed with other trees 

 that love rich, moist soil. 

 The best white ash grows 

 in the lower Ohio River 

 basin. 



In the forest the trunk 

 of the white ash is gen- 

 erally straight aot'- f 'cc 

 from branches .jAtil it di- 

 vides into a short, narrow, 

 conical or rounded top. 

 In the open it forms a 

 spreading, evenly rounded 

 head ; the lower branches 

 extend nearly to the 

 ground/and often are 

 cu' ved in the shape of an 

 inverteyti ox bow. FuU- 

 (^own trees are seventy 

 to eighty feet high, with a 

 1081 



