Distinguishing Features: This is the only ash in Illinois where none of the leaflets has stalks.
RED ASH
Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh.
Growth Form: Medium tree up to 60 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 2 feet; crown usually pyramidal; trunk straight, rather stout, sometimes slightly buttressed at base.
Bark: Light or dark gray, with diamond-shaped furrows between flat-topped, sometimes scaly ridges.
Twigs: Slender to rather stout, gray or brown, covered by velvety hairs, leaf scars opposite, half-round and straight across the top, with several bundle traces forming a half-moon.
Buds: Rounded, dark brown, finely hairy, about ¼ inch long.
Leaves: Opposite, pinnately compound, with 7-9 leaflets; leaflets elliptic to elliptic-ovate, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, up to 6 inches long, about ⅓ as wide, sparsely toothed along the edges, hairy on both surfaces.
Flowers: Staminate and pistillate on separate trees, appearing after the leaves have begun to open, minute, crowded in purplish or greenish dense clusters.
Fruit: A cluster of paddle-shaped fruits, each fruit up to 2½ inches long and less than ½ inch broad, with a single seed at one end.