EBONY FAMILY
273. PERSIMMON (Diospyros virginiana L.) a common small or rarely large tree, on dry, open ground, old fields or sometimes rich bottom lands. Leaves: ovate, entire, 4 to 6 inches long, dark and shining above, paler beneath. Twigs: slender, light brown or ashy gray, with a thick pith cavity. Bark: dark, divided into nearly square blocks. Flowers: dioecious, pistillate solitary bell-shaped about ¾ inch deep and ½ inch wide; staminate shorter and tubular clustered in 2’s or 3’s; both creamy colored, opening in May. Fruit: soft, round, orange-brown, about 1 to 2 inches across, containing many large, flat, smooth seeds; edible, ripe in fall and winter, whenever the calyx separates readily from the fruit. Wood: hard, dense, strong; brown or black heartwood, wide sapwood white or yellowish; used for shuttles, golf-stick heads, but not commercially valuable.
OLIVE FAMILY
274. WHITE ASH (Fraxinus americana L.) a common, rather large tree of widespread and various habitat. Leaves: opposite, pinnately compound, 5 to 9 but usually 7 leaflets, entire or with obscure or rounded teeth, 3 to 5 inches long and 1½ to 3 wide, dark green above and paler beneath. Twigs: stout, gray or light brown in winter, with large, roundish leaf-scars concave or notched on upper side. Bark: dark brown or gray, broken by many narrow fissures. Flowers: dioecious, the staminate clusters often mistaken for seeds when they harden and cling through winter, a condition caused by the sting of an insect mite. Fruit: nearly cylindrical seed with a thin wing attached, oar-shaped, 1 to 2½ inches long, in dense clusters. Wood: heavy, hard, tough, strong, brown; valuable for tool handles, oars, furniture and interiors; valued as a shade tree.
275. GREEN ASH (Fraxinus pennsylvanica var. lanceolata Sarge.) prefers bottom lands. Leaves: differ from white ash in the leaf color which is light or bright green on both sides, margins more sharply serrate and serrations extending nearly to the base, leaflets narrower. Fruit: wings extend more than half way along two sides of the seed portion. Twigs: leaf-scar straight or nearly so on upper side. Since this tree often hybridizes with the white ash, the species are sometimes hard to distinguish.
276. SPRING HERALD (Adelia pubescens Nutt.) spring goldenglow, or devil’s elbow; an abundant shrub of medium height, widespread but preferring upland woods. Leaves: simple, opposite, ¾ to 1½ inches long, blunt, with fine, rounded teeth. Twigs: light, gray, zigzag or tangled. Flowers: dioecious, very early, petal-less, clusters of stamens pale yellow, pistillate flowers greenish. Fruit: oval, bluish, ripen and fall early in summer. These bushes make dense cover for birds and small animals. It is always distinguishable from swamp holly by its opposite twigs. [K] (p. 287).
276 spring herald
277. SWAMP PRIVET (Adelia acuminata Poir.) a tall shrub or rarely a small tree growing only in low or swampy woods where fairly common. Leaves: opposite, usually 1½ to 3 inches long and about an inch wide, margins entire or finely serrate, tips acuminate. Twigs and BARK: dark, rather smooth with light dots. Flowers: similar to spring herald. Fruit: elongated, usually tapering.
