Ash tree

Many, see text.

An ash can be any of three different tree genera from three very distinct families (see end of page for disambiguation), but originally and most commonly refers to trees of the genus Fraxinus in the olive family Oleaceae. The ashes are usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen. The leaves are opposite (rarely in whorls of three), and mostly pinnately-compound, simple in a few species. The seeds, popularly known as keys, are a type of fruit known as a samara.

Species

Ashes of eastern North America -

Fraxinus americana White Ash

Fraxinus caroliniana Water Ash

Fraxinus nigra Black Ash

Fraxinus pennsylvanica Green Ash (also includes Red Ash)

Fraxinus profunda (syn. F. tomentosa) Pumpkin Ash

Fraxinus quadrangulata Blue Ash

Ashes of western and southwestern North America -

Fraxinus anomala Single-leaf Ash

Fraxinus cuspidata Fragrant Ash

Fraxinus dipetala Two-petal Ash

Fraxinus dubia

Fraxinus gooddingii Goodding's Ash

Fraxinus greggii Gregg's Ash

Fraxinus latifolia Oregon Ash

Fraxinus papillosa Chihuahua Ash

Fraxinus purpusii

Fraxinus rufescens

Fraxinus texensis Mountain Ash or Texas Ash

Fraxinus uhdei Shamel Ash

Fraxinus velutina Velvet Ash

Ashes of the Western Palearctic (Europe, north Africa and southwest Asia) -

Fraxinus angustifolia Narrow-leafed Ash

* Fraxinus angustifolia var. oxycarpa (F. oxycarpa) Caucasian Ash

Fraxinus excelsior European Ash

Fraxinus holotricha

Fraxinus ornus Manna Ash or Flowering Ash

Fraxinus pallisiae Pallis' Ash

Ashes of the Eastern Palearctic (central & eastern Asia) -

Fraxinus apertisquamifera

Fraxinus baroniana

Fraxinus bungeana Bunge's Ash

Fraxinus chinensis Chinese Ash or Korean Ash

Fraxinus chiisanensis

Fraxinus floribunda Himalayan Manna Ash

Fraxinus griffithii Griffith's Ash

Fraxinus hubeiensis

Fraxinus lanuginosa

Fraxinus longicuspis Japanese Ash

Fraxinus malacophylla

Fraxinus mandshurica Manchurian Ash

Fraxinus mariesii Chinese Flowering Ash

Fraxinus micrantha

Fraxinus paxiana

Fraxinus platypoda

Fraxinus raibocarpa

Fraxinus sieboldiana Japanese Flowering Ash

Fraxinus spaethiana Späth's Ash

Fraxinus trifoliata

Fraxinus xanthoxyloides Afghan Ash

Threats

The emerald ash borer Agrilus planipennis, a wood-boring beetle accidentally introduced to North America from eastern Asia with ash wood products in about 1998, has killed millions of trees in southeast Michigan, adjacent Ontario, and some isolated smaller areas on eastern North America. It threatens some 7 billion ash trees in North America. Ash is also used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including November Moth and Ash Pug.

Uses

The wood is hard, tough and very strong but elastic, extensively used for tool handles, quality wooden baseball bats, hurleyss and other uses demanding high strength and resilience. It also makes excellent firewood. The two most economically important species for wood production are White Ash in eastern North America, and European Ash in Europe. The Green Ash is widely planted as a street tree in the United States. The inner bark of the Blue Ash has been used as a source for a blue dye.

Cultural aspects

In Norse mythology, the World Tree Yggdrasil is commonly held to be an ash tree, and the first man, Ask, was formed from an ash tree (the first woman was made from alder). Elsewhere in Europe, snakes were said to be repelled by ash leaves or a circle drawn by an ash branch. Irish folklore claims that shadows from an ash tree damage crops. In Cheshire, it is said that ash could be used to cure warts or rickets.

In Greek mythology, the Meliai were nymphs of the ash, perhaps specifically of the Manna Ash (Fraxinus ornus), as dryads were nymphs of the oak. Many echoes of archaic Hellene rites and myth involve ash trees.

Other name uses (disambiguation)

In North America, the name ash is also given to species of Sorbus, more accurately known as Rowans and Whitebeams. In Australia, many common eucalyptus species are called ash because they too produce hard, fine-grained timber. The best known of these is the Mountain Ash, the tallest broadleaf tree in the world.

NodeWorks boosts web surfing!

Page Returned in 0.472 seconds - HTML Compressed 69.1%

This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.