Nature Bulletin No. 255-A   February 4, 1967
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Richard B. Ogilvie, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:THE ASHES

Most city people know nothing about an ash tree nor would they 
recognize one if they saw it. Although an ash is easily transplanted and 
grows rather rapidly, it is infrequently used as a shade or street tree. 
Perhaps this is because they bear large quantities of winged seeds that 
litter the ground for some distance around them; or because they are 
among the last trees to put on their leaves in spring and among the first 
to shed them in autumn. Perhaps it is because they have thick stubby 
twigs and rather sparse foliage.

The Ashes, however, are among our most useful forest trees. Only eight 
other kinds, principally the oaks, maples, sweet gum, yellow poplar and 
birch, furnish greater amounts of hardwoods used by the lumber 
industry. Of 50 or more species known, there are 17 in North America. 
We have 6 in Illinois but the Biltmore Ash and the Pumpkin or Swell-
butted Ash occur only in the southern portion. The Mountain Ash and 
the Prickly Ash are not really ashes nor related to them.

The White Ash is the most widely distributed, most numerous and most 
valuable or our native species, all of which have compound leaves 
growing in opposite pairs along the twigs. Each leaf consists of a stout 
midrib with pointed leaflets set in opposite pairs along it, and an odd 
one at its tip. The white ash usually has 7 leaflets which are dark green 
above, pale green beneath, and are attached to the midrib by a short 
stem. The tall straight trunks of the older trees are covered with brown 
thick bark having rather narrow ridges, separated by deep fissures into a 
regular diamond-shaped pattern. The fruits or "keys" which mature in 
late summer and are carried by the wind, grow in crowded clusters. 
Each key has a wing 1 to 2 inches long, shaped like a canoe paddle, 
with the seed at the handle end.

The close-grained wood of the white ash is notable for its strength, 
toughness and elasticity. The Indians used it for bows and arrows, 
canoe paddles, sleds, cradle boards and the bent frames of snowshoes. 
The white settlers valued it for the axles and tongues of wagons, plow 
handles, and the bent bows for tops of wagons and carriages. More 
recently, it was used for the tops of automobiles and the bent wood in 
the wings and fuselages of airplanes. Today it is extensively used for 
tool handles, ladders, baseball bats, oars, and athletic equipment such as 
tennis racquets, hockey sticks, skis, snowshoes, toboggans and javelins.

The Red Ash and a variety of it, called the Green Ash, are distinguished 
from the white ash by the fact that their leaves are narrower, more 
toothed along the edges, and are bright green or yellow-green on both 
sides. They do not grow as large as the white ash and their wood is 
more coarse-grained and more brittle. There are other small differences 
in the seeds and bark. The red ash, however, has fuzz on its twigs, the 
midribs of its leaves, and the undersides of its leaflets; whereas the 
green ash, like the white ash, has none.

The Black Ash is found only in wet rich ground. Its sharply toothed 
leaflets are attached directly, without a stem, to the midrib of the leaf, 
and its trunk has grayish bark separated into thin plates resembling 
those of a white oak. Its wood is softer and weaker than that of the other 
ashes. The Indians called it the Basket Tree because, by pounding a 
peeled log with mauls or clubs, they could separate the wood into thin 
slats, each a year' s growth, which were woven into baskets. The Blue 
Ash, much similar but less common, can be identified by its twigs 
which appear square because of four small corky ridges. The Indians 
and pioneers made a blue dye by steeping its inner bark in water.

Only Horse Chestnuts, Ashes and Maples -- the Ham trio -- have 
opposite twigs.