BLUE ASH
Fraxinus quadrangulata Michx.
Other Name: Square-stemmed Ash.
Growth Form: Moderate tree to seventy feet tall; trunk diameter up to 3 feet; crown irregular, with many short, sturdy branches.
Bark: Gray, scaly, without diamond-shaped furrows.
Twigs: Stout, square, gray or brown, smooth; leaf scars half-round and concave across the top, with several bundle traces forming a half-moon.
Buds: Rounded, gray, finely hairy, up to one-half inch long.
Leaves: Opposite, pinnately compound, with 5-11 leaflets; leaflets lance-shaped, long-pointed at the tip tapering to the sometimes asymmetrical base, up to 6 inches long, less than half as wide, coarsely toothed along the edges, yellowish-green and smooth on the upper surface, paler and usually with tufts of hairs along the veins on the lower surface. The leaflets turn yellow in the autumn.
Flowers: Small, in branched clusters, appearing as the leaves begin to unfold, purplish, without any petals.
Fruit: Oblong, winged fruits, notched at the tip, up to 2 inches long and one-half inch broad, with a single seed near the bottom.
Wood: Hard, heavy, yellow-brown.