Habit: Shrub or tree; generally dioecious, often bisexual (in California).
Stem: older bark smooth or becoming furrowed, generally gray; lenticels broadly elliptic; twigs cylindric to 4-angled, glabrous to hairy; developing short-shoot spurs.
Leaf: simple or generally odd-pinnate, opposite, deciduous; petioles channeled, occasionally winged, hairy or not; if compound, leaflets (1)3--9, lanceolate to ovate or obovate, generally acute to acuminate at tip, entire or +- crenate-serrate, generally dark green adaxially, pale abaxially, thin to +- leathery in drier habitats, generally glabrous or with simple hairs abaxially or throughout, proximal opposite on rachis, stalked or not, terminal generally largest, stalk longer.
Inflorescence: axillary, of clusters or long-branched panicles; flowers pedicelled.
Flower: unisexual or bisexual; calyx 1--2 mm, shallowly +- 4-lobed to cut, persistent on fruit; petals 0, 2, or 4, free or fused to basal filaments.
Staminate Flower: stamens 2(3); pistil vestigial.
Pistillate Flower: stamens 0; style slender; ovules 2 per chamber.
Fruit: achenes, winged, wings generally flat, extending to tip or base of seed-containing chamber.
Seed: generally 1.
Species In Genus: +- 65 species: temperate. North America, Eurasia, tropical Asia.
Etymology: (Latin: ancient name)
Note: Fraxinus uhdei (Wenzig) Lingelsheim, Mexican ash, cultivated in western United States; similar to
Fraxinus velutina, with +- larger leaves and leaflets, generally with stiff hairs to 0.5 mm bordering abaxial midvein and occasionally 2° veins abaxially (as occasionally in
Fraxinus velutina), and +- larger fruit, but margins tapered to near base of fruit body; native northern Mexico to Honduras.
Jepson eFlora Author: Family description, key to genera by Thomas J. Rosatti; treatment of genera by James Henrickson
Reference: Little 1952 J Washington Acad Sci 42:369--380; Miller 1955 Cornell Univ Agric Exp Sta Mem 335:1--64
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Fraxinus
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