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| ## white ash {#white-ash .Title-Header}                               |
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| *Fraxinus americana* L.                                               |
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| Plant Symbol = FRAM2                                                  |
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##### *Contributed By: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & the Biota of North America Program*

### 

![](media/image2.jpeg){width="2.5972222222222223in" height="3.9in"}

R. Mohlenbrock

USDA, NRCS, Wetland Science Institute

@ PLANTS

## Alternate common names

Biltmore ash, Biltmore white ash, cane ash, small-seed white ash

## Uses

White ash is a good tree for open areas such as parks and campuses; it
also is used as a lawn, shade, and street tree, even though its
potential large size can make it incongruous with a small area. It is an
erect, graceful tree, often with bronze-purple fall foliage. It is easy
to transplant and numerous cultivars have been developed, including
seedless (male) forms. Other selections are based on yellow to orange
and purple fall colors, persistence of leaves in the fall, height, crown
shape (broadly to narrowly oval) and density, growth vigor, and cold
hardiness. White ash also has been used in re-vegetating disturbed
sites.

The wood of white ash is valued for its strength, hardness, heavy
weight, and elasticity (shock resistance). Native Americans appreciated
its usefulness for tools and implements, and it is used extensively
today for tool handles. Its use in wooden baseball bats is famous. The
wood is also used in furniture, doors, veneer, antique vehicle parts,
railroad cars and ties, canoe paddles, snowshoes, boats, posts, ties,
and fuel. White ash is the most valuable timber tree of the various
ashes.

White ash was used by Native Americans for a variety of medicinal
purposes: a decoction of the leaves as a laxative and general tonic for
women after childbirth; the seeds as an aphrodisiac, a diuretic, an
appetite stimulant, a styptic, an emetic, and as a cure for fevers; and
a bark tea for an itching scalp, lice, snakebite, and other sores. Juice
from the leaves has been applied to mosquito bites for relief of
swelling and itching.

White-tailed deer and cattle browse white ash and beaver, porcupine, and
rabbits may eat the bark of young trees. The seeds are eaten by wood
duck, northern bobwhite, turkey, grouse, finches, grosbeaks, cardinals,
fox squirrel, mice, and many other birds and small mammals. The tendency
of white ash to form trunk cavities makes it valuable for cavity nesters
such as redheaded, red-bellied, and pileated woodpeckers. Once primary
nest excavators have opened up the bole, it is an excellent habitat for
secondary nesters such as wood ducks, owls, nuthatches, and gray
squirrels.

## Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural
Resources for this plant's current status, such as, state noxious status
and wetland indicator values.

## Description 

*General*: Olive family (Oleaceae). Native trees growing to 20-30 m
tall, maintaining a central leader (strong apical dominance) in youth
with an even distribution of branches, developing a dense, conical or
rounded crown at maturity. The trunk is long, straight, and free of
branches for most of its length (except when open grown). The bark is
thick, dark gray, with a uniform, diamond-shaped ridge and furrow
pattern. Leaves are deciduous, opposite, pinnately compound, 20-38 cm
long, leaflets usually 7(5-9), short-stalked, ovate to ovate-lanceolate
or elliptic, acuminate, 6-13 cm long and 3-6 cm wide, sometimes with a
few teeth near the tip, dark green and smooth above, whitish below.
Flowers are numerous, very small, green to purplish, in small branched
clusters near the branch tips, usually either male (staminate) or female
(pistillate), a single tree usually bearing only one sex (the species
dioecious). Fruits are samaras 2.5-5 cm long, hanging in clusters, with
a narrow wing extending about 1/3-1/4 of the way down the cylindrical
body. The common name is in reference to the white color of the wood.

This species flowers in April-May, the male first, before appearance of
the leaves; fruiting August-October, the seeds dispersed
September-November. The pollen is already airborne during the 7-10 days
when the female flowers are receptive.

*Variation within the species:* A number of variants have been described
within the species, including *F.* *americana* var. *biltmoreana*
(Beadle) J. Wright ex Fern. (= *F. biltmoreana* Beadle) and *F.
americana* var. *microcarpa* A. Gray, but the distinctions between these
have not been generally confirmed and formal variants are not currently
recognized. Diploids (2n=46), tetraploids (2n=92), and hexaploids
(2n=138) occur within the species, but it is difficult to associate
differences in ploidy level with other patterns of variation.

## Distribution

White ash grows over most of eastern North America, absent only from the
outer Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains. It occurs from Nova Scotia west
to eastern Minnesota and south to Texas and northern Florida, northward
barely into southern Quebec and Ontario. It is cultivated in Hawaii. For
current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this
species on the PLANTS Web site.

## Establishment

*Adaptation*: White ash grows best on deep, well-drained, moist soils
with other hardwoods at elevations of about 0-1050 meters. It rarely
forms pure stands. It occurs on middle slopes in the Northeast, on
slightly elevated ridges in the floodplains of major streams in the
coastal plain, and on slopes along major streams in the central states.
Primary associates are eastern white pine, northern red oak, white oak,
sugar maple, red maple, yellow birch, American beech, black cherry,
eastern hemlock, and yellow poplar.

White ash is primarily characteristic of early and intermediate stages
of succession. The seedlings are shade tolerant but can also establish
in full sun. Mature individuals are shade intolerant -- after persisting
for a few years in moderately dense shade, trees developing inside
closed stands reach the overstory by responding quickly to openings in
the canopy.

*General*: White ash begins producing seed at a minimum age of 20 years.
A good seed crop is produced at intervals of 2-3 years, although the
males flower heavily each year. To best overcome dormancy, stratify
under moist conditions for 30 days at 14/30° C (night/day) then for 60
days at 5° C. A forest floor seed bank may retain viable white ash seeds
for 3-4 years. Germination can occur on mineral soil, humus, or leaf
litter, and seedlings develop best in partial sun. Mature trees may
reach 200 years of age.

White ash resprouts from the root crown after logging or fire. Sprouting
ability decreases with age.

## Management

White ash prefers moist, deep soils for best growth but is adaptable to
a wide range of soil pH. Full sun is best. Young plants are easily
transplanted and established. White ash has been successfully used in
the reclamation of strip mines in Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.
Seedlings provide a better start than direct seeding, and planting
should be in mixtures with other hardwoods. White ash is more ornamental
than green ash (*Fraxinus pennsylvanica*) but is less adaptable, grows
at a slower rate, and is more susceptible to pests and diseases.

Bud grafting generally propagates white ash cultivars. The species also
can be propagated by conventional methods of grafting and layering; open
field and bench grafting of unpotted stock have been successful.

Fire kills the aboveground stem and crown of white ash, but it resprouts
from the root crown after fire. White ash is moderately susceptible to
decay and insect damage induced through fire damage.

## Environmental Concerns

Ash decline (or "ash dieback" or "ash yellows") is the most serious
problem affecting white ash. The decline is especially prevalent in New
York, Pennsylvania and Vermont but occurs from the Great Plains to the
Atlantic coast at 39°--45° N latitude. Mycoplasma-like organisms (MLO,
the cause of ash yellows) have been found associated with most of the
dying trees.Not all dying trees are infected and ash decline is thought
to result from multiple causes -- MLO plus various fungi and viruses, as
well as atmospheric pollution and drought. Maintenance of good tree
vigor is the primary control recommendation.

White ash is sensitive to ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, and
associated acid deposition, which may cause the appearance of necrotic
lesions on the leaves. Most of recent ash decline has occurred in areas
with high levels of these gases.

## Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil
Conservation Service) office for more information. Look in the phone
book under "United States Government." The Natural Resources
Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading "Department of
Agriculture." These plant materials are readily available from
commercial sources.

## References

Griffith, R.S. 1991. *Fraxinus americana*. IN: W.C. Fischer (compiler).
*The fire effects information system* \[Data base\]. USDA Forest
Service, Intermountain Research Station, Intermountain Fire Sciences
Laboratory, Missoula, Montana.
\<http://fire.org/feis/plants/tree/fraame/all_frames.html\>

Schlesinger, R.C. 1990. *Fraxinus americana* L. White Ash. Pp. 333-338,
in R.M. Burns and B.H. Honkala (tech. coords.). *Silvics of North
America*. *Volume 2.* *Hardwoods*. USDA Forest Service Agric. Handbook
654, Washington, D.C.
\<http://willow.ncfes.umn.edu/silvics_manual/volume_2/fraxinus/americana.htm\>

USDA, NRCS 1993. *Northeast wetland flora: Field office guide to plant
species*. Wetland Science Institute, Laurel, Maryland.

## Prepared By

*Guy Nesom,* Formerly BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden, University
of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

## Species Coordinator

### *Lincoln Moore,* USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Edited 05dec00 jsp; 14feb03 ahv; 060801 jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
Web site\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> or the
Plant Materials Program Web site
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>

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