Flowers: Staminate and pistillate borne on separate trees before the leaves begin to expand, minute, without petals, purplish, in crowded clusters, soon becoming elongated and less crowded.
Fruit: Paddle-shaped, winged, up to 2½ inches long and ¼ inch wide, several in a cluster, 1-seeded at the base.
Wood: Heavy, strong, hard, coarse-grained, brown.
Uses: Furniture, baseball bats, tool handles, interior finishing.
Habitat: Bottomlands and wooded slopes.
Range: Nova Scotia across to Minnesota, south to Texas and Florida.
Distinguishing Features: White Ash differs from Green Ash in having distinctly paler lower leaf surfaces. Plants with hairy leaves resemble Red Ash, but the fruits do not have the wing extending down beyond the seed in the White Ash.
BLACK ASH
Fraxinus nigra Marsh.
Growth Form: Medium tree up to 70 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 2 feet; crown broadly rounded, with many stout, straight branches.