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Ashes and the Fringe Tree — Part 3

The Blue Ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata, Michx.) conceals its bluing in its inner bark. Crush a bit of it in water and the dye appears. But this is not always a convenient way to identify a tree. There is a simpler and more satisfactory way. Take a look at the twigs. Are they 4-sided toward the tips? Quadrangulata means 4-angled. This obvious trait and the perfect flowers set the blue ash apart from all the others. The leaves and seeds might easily be confused with those of the black ash if form alone were considered. But the foliage mass of a blue ash is yellow-green, much lighter in colour than that of its sombre cousin of the swamps.

Blue-ash trees are common in the rich bottom lands of the Wabash River in Illinois, and along other tributaries of the Mississippi from southern Michigan, through Iowa and Missouri to Kansas and into Arkansas. It reaches south to the upper part of Alabama and east to the highlands of Tennessee. Some of the finest specimens grow on the limestone hills of the Big Smoky Mountains. The exact range of this tree is not known at present.

The French botanist, Michaux, fell in love with this tall, graceful grey-stemmed ash when he found it growing among the Alleghany Mountains. He named it for its angled twigs, and sent seeds, and young trees, perhaps, to be planted in European gardens. We can do no better than to follow his example, and plant the blue ash for shade and ornament in America. It is hardy, quick of growth, and unusually free from the ills that beset trees. A well-grown specimen is a constant joy to the tree lover.

The blue ash ranks high as a timber tree. It is fully the equal of white ash, and in one particular is better even than this one. It is more durable than any other ash wood when exposed alternately to wet and dry conditions. It is used for vehicles, for flooring, and for tool handles, especially pitchforks.

Oregon Ash (Fraxinus Oregona, Nutt.)--A broad-crowned, shapely tree, 75 to 80 feet high, with stout trunk and erect, stout branches. Bark reddish grey or brown, deeply fissured, with ridges interlacing and shedding papery scales. Wood brown, coarse, hard, light, porous. Buds small, acute, with rusty or pale pubescence. Leaves compound, 5 to 14 inches long, of 5 to 7 pinnate leaflets, firm, thick, pale green above, lighter and pubescent beneath; terminal leaflet on stalk 1 inch long, lateral ones on shorter stalks or sessile; leaflets oblong or oval, obscurely serrate, abruptly pointed; autumn colour yellow or russet brown. Flowers, April with leaves, dioecious, in smooth, dense panicles. Fruit in crowded clusters, each obovate, 1 1/2 to 2 inches long; body fusiform, about length of wing. Preferred habitat, rich, moist soil, near streams. Distribution, Pacific coast from Puget Sound to Bay of San Francisco, and back to foothills of Sierras. Uses: A valuable shade tree. Wood used for furniture, interior finishing of houses, frames of vehicles, cooperage and fuel.

This tree has the ash habit of unfolding its leaves late in the spring, and "making up for it," as Oliver Goldsmith would say, by losing them early in the fall. From the standpoint of the landscape gardener, this is a double fault. But the cleanly habit of the tree, its graceful head during the summer season, and its valuable lumber, which is counted equal to white ash, commend it to planters. It has been successfully introduced into European gardens, and is hardy in the Arnold Arboretum in Boston.

It is interesting to note that an old tradition recorded by Pliny has arisen, as if spontaneously, among the Indians of the Pacific coast. Nuttall wrote after his visit to this region about the time of the exodus to California in 1849: "An opinion prevails in Oregon among the hunters and Indians that poisonous serpents are unknown in the same tract of country where this Ash grows, and stories are related of a stick of it causing the Rattle Snake to retire with every mark of fear and trepidation, and that it would sooner go into the fire than creep over it." We certainly suspect that the hunters above mentioned, or perhaps earlier white men visiting the region, imported the Old-World tradition.

The Pumpkin Ash (Fraxinus profunda, Bush.) is one of the largest and most beautiful of our ash trees, and leads all the others in the size of its leaves and keys. The velvety pubescence of its young shoots and leaf linings might confuse it with the red ash, but that its branchlets are stout. The leaves are 10 to 18 inches long, with broadly lanceolate leaflets, pointed and wavy margined, leathery, with downy linings and leaf stalks. The keys are 2 1/2 to 3 inches long, with wings that broaden and round at the tips. They are borne in large, pendulous and very profuse clusters.