Bark: Light gray, scaly, without diamond-shaped furrows.
Twigs: Stout, gray or brown, smooth; leaf scars elliptic or oval, with several bundle traces arranged in a half moon.
Buds: Conical, blue-black, finely hairy, about one-fourth inch long.
Leaves: Opposite, pinnately compound, with 7-11 leaflets; leaflets without stalks, lance-shaped, long-pointed at the tip, tapering or rounded at the sometimes asymmetrical base, up to 6 inches long, less than one-half as wide, toothed along the edges, dark green and smooth on the upper surface, paler and with rusty hairs along the veins on the lower surface. The leaflets turn reddish-brown in the autumn.
Flowers: Small, in elongated clusters, appearing before the leaves begin to unfold, purplish, without any petals, some with both stamens and pistils, others only with stamens, others only with pistils.
Fruit: Oblong, winged fruits, barely notched at the tip, up to 1½ inches long, up to one-half inch broad, with a single seed at the base.
Wood: Soft, heavy, dark brown.
Uses: Cabinets, baskets, fence posts.
Habitat: Swampy woods.
Range: Newfoundland across to Manitoba, south to Iowa, central Illinois, West Virginia, and Delaware.