WHITE ASH
Fraxinus americana, L.
Form.—Height 50-100 feet, diameter 2-4 feet; trunk usually long and free from branches for many feet; crown pyramidal and open.
Leaves.—Opposite, pinnately compound, 8-12 inches long; the 7-9 leaflets 3-5 inches long, ovate or lance-oblong, pointed, nearly or quite entire, glabrous, dark green above, pale and either smooth or pubescent beneath.
Flowers.—May; dioecious; the staminate in dense red-purple clusters; the pistillate in loose panicles.
Fruit.—Matures in early autumn, and persists into the winter; samaras 1-2 inches long in drooping paniculate clusters.
Bark.—Furrowed deeply, the ridges firm, narrow, flattened, brownish-gray.
Wood.—Heavy, hard, strong, close-grained, tough and elastic, brown with thick sapwood.
Range.—Nova Scotia to Minnesota, southward to Florida and Texas.
Distribution in West Virginia.—Common throughout the State.