Uses: Flooring; the inner bark produces a blue dye when placed in water.
Habitat: Wooded slopes, limestone cliffs.
Range: Western Pennsylvania across Wisconsin to Iowa, south to Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Alabama; southern Ontario.
Distinguishing Features: The square stems immediately distinguish this tree from any other ash in Illinois.
PUMPKIN ASH
Fraxinus tomentosa Michx. f.
Growth Form: Large tree sometimes nearly 100 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 3 feet; crown broadly rounded, with stout spreading branches.
Bark: Gray, becoming scaly.
Twigs: Stout, gray or brown, usually velvety; leaf scars opposite, horseshoe-shaped, with several bundle traces arranged in a half-moon.
Buds: More or less conical, brown, hairy, about one-fourth inch long.