Fringe Tree 



813 



III. FRINGE TREE 



GENUS OmONAMTHUS LINN^US 

 Species Ohionanthus viiginica Linnaeus 



HIS beautiful tree or shrub is indigenous from southern New Jersey 

 and southeastern Pennsylvania to Florida and westward to Teimessee, 

 Arkansas and Texas; it is so well known as to have received many 

 common names, such as Old man's beard, White fringe, American 



fringe. Flowering ash, and Snowflower tree ; its maximum height is 10 meters, with 



a trunk diameter up to 2.5 dm. 



The trunk is short; the branches are stout and ascending. The bark is 6 to 



12 mm. thick, fissured into small, thin, close 



scales of a reddish brown color. The twigs 



are stout, slightly angled, green, usually hairy, 



becoming round, smooth, and light brown. 



The buds are ovoid, sharp-pointed, about 3 



mm. long. The stalked leaves are thickish, 



oval, oblong-elliptic or ovate, 5 to 15 cm. long, 



rounded, sharp or taper-pointed at each end, 



yellowish green at first, becoming darker 



green and shining above, paler and smooth 



except along the prominent venation beneath; 



they become bright yellow and fall in the 



early autumn. The fragrant flowers appear 



from April to June, dependent upon latitude; 



they are perfect or polygamous, in axillary, 



hairy, nodding panicles i to 2 dm. long, 



bracted at each division, the ultimate divi- 



FlG. 745. — Fringe Tree. 



sions being 3-flowered ; the very small calyx is green, smooth, cup-shaped, deeply 

 4-lobed; the corolla is 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long, its sharp, linear lobes slightly spreading 

 and joined into a very short tube at the base; the 2, rarely 4, stamens are joined 

 to the base of the corolla-tube, their filaments short and included, the anthers light 

 yellow; the ovary is 2-celled; style short, stout, with a 2-lobed stigma; ovules 2 in 

 each cavity. The fruit, borne in loose clusters, is oblong or oval-oblong, 1.5 to 2 

 cm. long, dark purple or nearly black, often with a bloom; its skin is thick, the 

 flesh thin and dryish; stone brittle, usually i-seeded; seed ovate, 16 cm. long. 



Its wood is close-grained, light brown, with a specific gravity of about 0.64. 

 The bark is sometimes used as a tonic. The Fringe tree is much planted in gar- 

 dens from Massachusetts southward; its only objectionable feature is the Umited 

 time in which it remains in foliage, as it is one of the most tardy to come into full 

 leaf in spring and among the very first to lose its fohage in the autumn. 



The genus, of which the Fringe tree is the type, is a small one, only 2 species 



