Fraxinus 907 



FRAXINUS LANCEOLATA, Green Ash 



Fraxinus lanceolata, Borkhausen, Handb. Forst. Bot. i. 826 (1800); Sudworth, Check List Forest 



Irees U.S. 107 (1898). 

 Fraxinus viridis, Michaux, Hist. Arb. Amer. iii. 115, t. 10 (excl. fruit), (18 13). 

 Fraxinus juglandifolia, Willdenow, Sp. PI. iv. 11 04 (1805) (not Lamarck); Loudon, Arb. et Frut, 



Brit. ii. 1236 (1838). 

 Fraxinus pennsylvanica, Marshall, var. lanceolata, Sargent, Silva JV. America, vi. 51, t. 272 (1894), and 



Trees N. America, 771 (1905). 



A tree rarely attaining more than 60 feet in height, with a girth of stem of 

 6 feet. Shoots dark green, glabrous, with conspicuous white lenticels. Leaflets 

 (Plate 264, Fig. 16), seven to nine, usually subsessile, 3 to 6 inches long, pale 

 green beneath, ovate-lanceolate, tapering and unequal at the base, long -acuminate 

 at the apex, under surface glabrous except for slight pubescence along the midrib, 

 variable in serration. Rachis of the leaf glabrous, distinctly grooved on its upper side. 



Flowers and fruit similar to those of F. pennsylvanica. 



This species ^ is considered by Sargent to be a variety of F. pennsylvanica 

 because west of the Mississippi trees occur, which are intermediate in character and 

 can be as readily referred to one species as to the other. As seen in cultivation in 

 England, it is very distinct, and on account of its glabrous shoots, it is very often 

 mistaken for F. americana. The green ash is, however, readily distinguished from 

 that species by the usually subsessile leaflets, which are pale green and not white 

 beneath.^ The rachis is, moreover, more deeply grooved than is ever the case in 

 F. americana, and the buds in the two species are different. (A. H.) 



This tree was described and figured by the younger Michaux, who says, " The 

 green ash is easily recognised by the brilliant colour of its young shoots and leaves, 

 of which the two surfaces are nearly alike." He found it more common in the 

 western districts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, than anywhere else, and 

 speaks of it as a tree of moderate dimensions, laden with seed when only 25 to 30 

 feet high. 



Sargent, who treats it as a variety of i^. pennsylvanica, and distinguishes it by the 

 leaves being rather narrower, shorter, and usually with more sharply serrate leaflets, 

 bright green on both surfaces, says that it rarely exceeds 60 feet high, and occurs 

 from the shores of Lake Champlain through the Alleghany mountains to western 

 Florida and west to the valley of the Saskatchewan, the valley of the Colorado 

 river, Texas, the eastern ranges of the Rocky Mountains, the Wasatch range, Utah, 

 and Arizona. It is comparatively rare east of the Alleghany mountains, and most 

 abundant in the Mississippi basin. East of the Mississippi it seems distinct, but 

 westward is connected with the red ash by intermediate forms. 



« A small tree growing in Kew Gardens and labelled F. coriacea, resembles in many respects the green ash. It is 

 apparently the Texan form of the Mexican F. Berlandieriana, DC, which was formerly considered to be a variety of 

 F. latueolata. The Kew tree has glabrous shoots like those of the green ash; but the leaflets (Plate 263, Fig. 14) are 

 smaller, more coriaceous and very reticulate, usually three to five in number, the terminal one largest and obovate, the lateral 

 ones oval and acuminate at the apex, all sparingly and irregularly serrate in the upper two-thirds, with the under surface pa^e 

 green and glabrous except for some pubescence along the midrib. Rachis of the leaf glabrous and slightly grooved. 

 R coriacea, Watson, a tree occurring in dejert regions from Utah to California is probably a variety of F Berlandtertana 

 differing in the pubescent branchlets and leaf-rachis. It is in cultivation at Aldenham, where a young tree, about 10 feet high, 

 obtained from Barbier's nursery at Orleans, is thriving. 



8 Mr. G. B. Sudworth, adds, that the leaflets are usually sharply serrate, while those oi F amcrtcana are commonly 



undulate, entire, or with only a few teeth. 



