Fraxinus americana

• BOTANICAL NAME: Fraxinus americana
• PRONUNCIATION: FRAK-si-nus a-mer-i-KA-na
• COMMON NAME: White Ash
• FAMILY: Oleaceae
• NATIVITY: Eastern Canada and U.S.
• GROWTH HABIT: Round headed with stout ascending branches, 50'-80' tall (120') x 60' - 90' wide. Rapid growth rate when young.
• HARDINESS: Zones 3-9
• CULTURE: Full sun in deep, moist, well-drained soils. Tolerant of heat, drought, and salt.
• SUCCESSIONAL STATUS: Seral
• FACULTATIVE STATUS: Facultative Upland
• LANDSCAPE USE: Use cultivars. Fall color can be excellent. Easily transplanted.
• FOLIAGE: Opposite, pinnately compound, with 5-9 ovate to ovate- lanceolate leaflets. Leaflets are opposite, 2"-6" long, usually with entire margins. Yellow to purple in fall. Flowers (April) are dioecious or polygamodioecious.
• BUDS: Broadly ovate, rusty to dark-brown, inset into leaf scar.
• BARK: Ash gray to brown, furrowed forming diamonds.
• FRUIT: Samara 1"-2" long.
• PROPAGATION: Seed; cultivars are budded.
• PESTS: (Numerous) anthracnose, rust, borers, scale, canker.
• CULTIVARS:
  • `Autumn Purple' - Deep-green leaves turn reddish purple in fall; male tree.
  • `Autumn Applsause' - Dark-maroon fall color; male tree.