The leaflets are long-pointed at the tip with a tapering base. The leaflets are dark green and glossy on the upper surface, while lighter green below. The margins are usually conspicuously toothed. Branches are stout, round, green and smooth to hairy when young, becoming smooth and turning ash-gray with age with half circular leaf scars. The fruit is a paddle-shaped samara which often persists into winter.
Green ash is the most widely distributed ash in the United States.
It is native to all of Iowa. It is found most often growing on bottomlands or on wet upland sites. Its common associates include cottonwood, silver maple, willows, hackberry, and black walnut. It does however, grow remarkable well on a wide variety of sites and if often found as a common tree of wood edges on upland sites. Like white ash, its wood is hard, tough, and relatively straight grained and used for a variety of products from tool handles to furniture to pallets.