ASH SPECIES FALL LEAF COLOR

GREEN ASH

WHITE ASH

ASH GROVE ON HWY. J

Tuesday, 9:00 AM.  Wind WSW, light.  The sky is clear, the humidity 70%. The barometer is trending up, at 29.96".  We are in for some nice fall weather.
   With all the concern about the Emerald Ash Borer I thought this would be a good time to give some hints about identifying ash trees in the landscape.  Fall leaf color is as good a long distance ID characteristic of our northern ash species as any.  Green ash, Fraxinus pennsylvanica, is usually golden yellow; white ash, Fraxinus americana, can be yellow- bronze to a deep purple.  Black ash, Fraxinus nigra, is yellow and usually found in wet, swampy locations.  Green ash tend to have spreading, weeping lower branches and a rounded or irregular form; white ash are a larger, more upright, oval  tree.  Black ash are smaller to medium sized trees.  There are other characteristics, such as number of leaflets to a leaf and shape and teeth of leaflets which I will address in a future post.