Fraxinus excelsior L.
ash
Tree to c. 30 m high. Shoots with prominent white lenticels, glabrous. Buds black, large. Petioles to c. 8 cm long. Leaflets usually 9-13, sessile, 4.5-10 × 1.75-3.5 cm, lanceolate, glabrous except for midrib and main veins beneath, serrate or serrulate; base cuneate; apex acuminate. Fls numerous in dense clusters. Calyx and corolla 0. Filaments > anthers. Anthers ovoid, often apiculate, dark purple. Samara (2.7)-3-4 cm × 7-9 mm, narrow-elliptic, oblanceolate or elliptic-obovate; wing extending c. 1/2 way along seed. Seed 1.2-1.5 cm long, compressed.
N.: Matahiwi (near Masterton); S.: Motueka R. flats and Maitai R. areas (Nelson), margin of Riccarton Bush and surrounding area (Christchurch), Mt Algidus (Canterbury).
Europe, W. Asia, N. Africa 1904
Plantations, scrub and waste shady places and gutters around settlements, Nothofagus forest.
FL Sep-Oct.
Ash is cultivated throughout N.Z. and was doubtless introduced by the earliest European settlers. Although it fruits freely in cultivation, wild plants are rarely seen. This description does not embrace all the range of variation in cultivation in N.Z., which culminates in such freak cvs as `Diversifolia' which has the number of leaflets reduced to one.
A number of other spp. are cultivated and recently the narrow-lanceolate-leaved F. angustifolia M. Vahl subsp. oxycarpa (Willd.) Franco et Rocha Afonso, Syrian ash, particularly its reddish leaved cv. 'Raywoodii', claret ash, has become very popular. F. pennsylvanica Marsh, red ash, is sometimes grown, and at Eastwoodhill estate near Gisborne, young spontaneous trees are very common. This is distinguished from both the above spp. by the axillary fls which have a persistent calyx c. 0.5 mm long, and the narrow-oblong samara 3-4 cm long with a terete seed.
