Fraxinus with thirty to forty species is widely distributed in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and within the tropics occurs on the islands of Cuba and Java. Of the eighteen North American species here recognized all, with the exception of Fraxinus dipetala Hook., of California, are large or small trees.
Fraxinus produces tough straight-grained valuable wood, and some of the species are large and important timber-trees. The waxy exudations from the trunk and leaves of Fraxinus Ornus L., of southern Europe and Asia Minor furnish the manna of commerce used in medicine as a gentle laxative; and the Chinese white wax is obtained from the branches of Fraxinus chinensis Roxb.
Fraxinus is the classical name of the Ash-tree.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Flowers with a corolla, in terminal panicles on lateral leafy branchlets of the year; leaflets 3—7, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate (Ornus).1. [F. cuspidata] (E, H). Flowers without a corolla, diœcious or polygamous, in axillary panicles, from separate buds, in the axils of leaves of the previous year (Fraxinastrum). Flowers with a calyx. Leaflets with obscure veins, not more than ¾′ long; fruit narrow-spatulate to oblong-obovate; rachis slightly winged.2. [F. Greggii] (E). Leaflets with distinct veins, more than ¾′ long; rachis without a wing. Body of the fruit compressed, its wing extending to the base. Branchlets 4-sided. Leaves usually 5-foliolate, with ovate acute leaflets; flowers unknown.3. [F. Lowellii] (F). Leaves usually reduced to a single ovate or orbicular leaflet; flowers polygamous.4. [F. anomala] (F). Branchlets terete. Leaflets 5—7, oblong-ovate; fruit oblong-elliptic to spatulate, often 3-winged, long-stipitate.5. [F. caroliniana] (A, C). Leaflets 3—5, oblong; fruit lanceolate to oblanceolate, the body extending to the base of the fruit.6. [F. pauciflora] (C). Body of the fruit nearly terete. Wing of the fruit terminal or slightly decurrent on the body. Leaves and branchlets glabrous (tomentose in one form of 7). Leaflets sessile or nearly sessile 5—7 rarely 5, ovate to oblong-ovate, rarely elliptic, acute or short-acuminate, glaucescent below.7. [F. Standleyi] (H). Leaflets stalked. Leaflets 5—7, ovate to lanceolate, abruptly pointed or acuminate, usually pale below.8. [F. americana] (A, C). Leaflets usually 5, ovate to obovate, rounded or acute at apex.9. [F. texensis] (C). Leaves and branches pubescent; leaflets oblong-ovate to lanceolate, pale below; fruit linear-oblong.10. [F. biltmoreana] (A, C). Wing of the fruit decurrent to below the middle of the body. Leaflets 7—9, usually 7; leaves and branches pubescent (glabrous in one form of 12). Fruit 2′—3′ in length.11. [F. profunda] (A, C). Fruit 1′—2½′ in length.12. [F. pennsylvanica] (A, E). Leaflets 3—5. Leaves and branchlets glabrous; fruit up to 1½′ in length.13. [F. Berlandieriana] (C, E). Leaves and branchlets pubescent or glabrous; fruit not more than ½′ in length.14. [F. velutina] (F, H). Leaflets 5—7, usually 7, the lateral generally sessile; leaves and branchlets pilose-pubescent, rarely glabrous.15. [F. oregona] (B, G). Flowers without a calyx; leaflets 5—11; wing of the fruit decurrent to the base of the body. Branchlets quadrangular; lateral leaflets short-stalked.16. [F. quadrangulata] (A, C). Branchlets terete; lateral leaflets sessile.17. [F. nigra] (A, C).
1. [Fraxinus cuspidata] Torr.
Leaves 5′—7′ long, with a slender pale petiole sometimes slightly wing-margined, and 3—7 lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate long-stalked leaflets gradually narrowed at apex into a long slender point, cuneate at base nearly entire or coarsely and remotely serrate above the middle with recurved teeth (var. serrata Rehd.), or with 3—5, rarely 7-foliolate leaves, with broader often ovate entire leaflets occasionally with simple leaves at the base of the branchlets (var. macropetala Rehd.); slightly puberulous when they unfold on the lower surface, and at maturity thin, dark green above, paler below, 1½′—2½′ long and ¼′—¾′ wide, with a pale midrib and obscure veins; petiolules slender, sometimes nearly 1′ in length. Flowers perfect, extremely fragrant, appearing in April, in open glabrous panicles 3′—4′ long and broad, terminal on lateral leafy branchlets developed from the axils of leaves of the previous year, calyx cup-shaped, 1/16′ long, with acute apiculate attenuate teeth of unequal length, deciduous, corolla ⅔′ long, thin and white, divided to below the middle into 4 linear-oblong lobes pointed at apex, and much longer than the nearly sessile oblong long-pointed anthers ovary 2-celled, with a thick 2-lobed nearly sessile stigma. Fruit elliptic to oblong-obovate, 1′ long and ¼′ wide, the wing round and slightly emarginate at apex, and decurrent nearly to the base of the flat nerveless longer body.
A tree, rarely 20° high, with a short trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, and slender terete branchlets light red-brown when they first appear, soon becoming darker and marked by scattered pale lenticels and ashy gray and roughened by the dark elevated lunate leaf-scars in their second year; more often a shrub or small shrubby tree, with numerous slender spreading stems 6°—8° tall. Winter-buds: terminal acute, nearly ½′ long, with dark reddish brown glutinous scales.
Distribution. Rocky slopes and dry ridges; Western Texas, valley of the Rio Grande (mouth of Devil’s River, Valverde County) to the Chisos Mountains, and in southern New Mexico; in Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Chihuahua; the var. macropetala in cañons of northern Arizona; the var. serrata (fig. 738) in Coahuila.