Green ash

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Green ash pistillate flowers

Green ash fruit

Green ash bark

Green ash pistillate flowers

Green ash staminate flowers

Green ash leaf

Green ash buds

Green ash

Green ash fruit

Green ash bark

Green ash staminate flowers

Green ash pistillate flowers

Green ash

Green ash flowering

Green ash leaves

Green ash fruit

Green ash staminate flowers

Green ash staminate flowers

Green ash fruit

Green ash bud and leaf scar

Morphology

Trunk

Straight, large, diameter to 2 feet; crown broad, irregular; branches high up, stout, ascending; bark gray or brownish, furrows shallow, ridges narrow, flat-topped, connected by cross-ridges.

Twigs

Coarse, rigid, smooth, gray or greenish-brown, glabrous or sparsely to densely pubescent; buds small, opposite, flattened; terminal bud pointed, longer than wide; bud scales reddish-brown, pubescent; leaf scars semicircular; bundle scars many in flattened ring.

Leaves

Opposite, odd-pinnately compound, deciduous, 5 to 12 inches long, 3 to 7 inches wide; leaflets 5-9 (often 7), lanceolate to elliptic or ovate, 2.4 to 4 inches long, .8 to 2 inches wide, thin, firm; upper surface bright green, glossy; lower surface paler, sparsely to densely fine-pubescent, especially along mid-veins; margins slightly toothed or entire; tip abruptly pointed to long tapering-pointed; base wedge-shaped; terminal leaflet stalked; lateral leaflets with or without stalks; stalks 1.6 to 2 inches long, stout, flat to grooved; leaves turn bright yellow in autumn.

Flowers

Before leaves; male and female flowers on separate trees in dense panicle-like clusters; calyx cup-shaped, irregularly-toothed to nearly entire, persisting on fruit; corolla absent; stamens 2-3; anthers purplish; pistillate flowers with small, egg-shaped ovaries, slightly flattened; style compressed, stigma narrowly 2-lobed, reddish.

Fruit

August-September, persisting through winter, in open drooping panicles 5-6 inches long; samara, narrowly oblanceolate to spatulate, 1-2 inches long, straw-colored, 2-4 distinct ridges on each side, 1-seeded; tip pointed to rounded or notched; wing terminal, prominent, flat, extending 1/2 or more of length of seed body; seed linear to narrowly oblong, less than 1/12 inch wide.

Ecology

Habitat

Stream banks, flood plain woods, lake borders, prairie ravines; rich alluvial soils.

Distribution

Throughout Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

Often planted in windbreaks. The wood has been used for tool handles, ball bats, canoe paddles, tennis rackets, and skis.

Additional Notes