BLUE ASH Fraxinus quadrangulata Michx.
THE blue ash is not very common but widely distributed in the upland portions of the State, where it is limited to limestone bluffs, occasionally descending to the adjacent bottom lands. It becomes a large tree 60 feet or more in height with a trunk 2 feet in diameter. The young twigs are usually square, sometimes winged or 4-ridged between the leaf bases.
BLUE ASH
Leaf, one-third natural size. Fruit and twig, two-thirds natural size.
The bark is light gray tinged with red, ½ to ⅔ inch thick, irregularly divided into large plate-like scales. Macerating the inner bark in water yields a blue dye.
The leaves are 8 to 12 inches long, having 7 to 11 stalked leaflets, long pointed and coarsely toothed, thick and firm, smooth and yellowish-green above, paler beneath.
The flowers are without petals and appear in clusters when the buds begin to expand.
The fruit is flattened and oblong, 1 to 2 inches long and less than ½ inch wide and usually notched at the outer end. The wing is about twice the length of the seed-bearing portion and extends down the sides past the middle.
The wood is heavy, hard, and close-grained, light yellow, streaked with brown, with a very broad zone of lighter sapwood. It is not usually distinguished commercially from the wood of other ashes.