Family: Oleaceae, olive family Genus species: Fraxinus americana
Leaves are pinnately compound. Each leaf has 7 or more leaflets.
All leaflets within one leaf are usually about the same size.
Bark is furrowed with diamond-shaped grooves. Bark is gray or
yellowish in color. Flowers are very small, produced in small
clusters. Flowers emerge before leaves in the spring. Male and
female flowers are on separate trees (dioecious). Fruit is 1 to
2 inches long. Fruit is flat, looks like the blade of a canoe
paddle. Seed is almost entirely surrounded by the fruit. Fruit
hangs in clusters, matures in late summer, wind-dispersed.
Fraxinus is from the Latin for "ash." Emerald Ash Borer: The
Emerald ash borer is an Asian beetle, discovered in 2002 in
Michigan and Ontario. The Emerald Ash Borer infests and kills
ash trees. Damage is caused by the larvae, which feed in tunnels
just below the bark. The tunnels cut off water and nutrient
transport, causing branches and eventually the entire tree to
die. Adults are 1/2 inch lo