Fraxinus quadrangulata

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Blue ash
Fraxinus quadrangulata.JPG
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Oleaceae
Genus: Fraxinus
Section: Fraxinus sect. Dipetalae
Species:
F. quadrangulata
Binomial name
Fraxinus quadrangulata
Fraxinus quadrangulata range map 4.png
Natural range of Fraxinus quadrangulata
Fraxinus quadrangulata range map 3.png
Close-up of natural range of Fraxinus quadrangulata

Fraxinus quadrangulata, the blue ash, is a species of ash native primarily to the Midwestern United States from Oklahoma to Michigan, as well as the Bluegrass region of Kentucky and the Nashville Basin region of Tennessee. Isolated populations exist in Alabama, Southern Ontario, and small sections of the Appalachian Mountains. [2] It is typically found over calcareous substrates such as limestone, growing on limestone slopes and in moist valley soils, at elevations of 120–600 m. [3] [4]

Contents

Description

Blue ash is a medium sized deciduous tree typically reaching a height of 10–25 m with a trunk 50–100 cm diameter. The twigs typically have four corky ridges, a distinctive feature giving them a square appearance (in cross-section), hence the species name, quadrangulata, meaning four-angled. The winter buds are reddish-brown. The leaves are 20–38 cm long, with 5–11 (most often 7) leaflets, the leaflets 7–13 cm long and 2.5–5 cm broad, with a coarsely serrated margin and short but distinct petiolules. The flowers are small and purplish, produced in the early spring before the leaves appear. The fruit is a samara 2.5–5 cm long and 6–12 mm broad, including the wing. [3] [4]

History and uses

The name blue ash is derived from the black dye extracted from the tree's inner bark through immersion in water. European colonists and American pioneers used this dye to color yarn for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, and embroidery. Blue Ash wood is used to make flooring, baseball bats, furniture, tool handles, crates and barrels. [4] The city of Blue Ash, Ohio, an inner suburb of Cincinnati, drew its name from the blue ash trees in the area, the logs of which were used to build many of the community's earliest buildings. [5]

North American native ash tree species are used by North American frogs as a critical food source, as the leaves that fall from the trees are particularly suitable for tadpoles to feed upon in ponds (both temporary and permanent), large puddles, and other water sources. [6] Species such as red maple, which are taking the place of ash, due to the ash borer, are much less suitable for the frogs as a food source—resulting in poor frog survival rates and small frog sizes. [6] It is the lack of tannins in the American ash varieties that makes them good for the frogs as a food source and also not resistant to the ash borer. Varieties of ash from outside North America typically have much higher tannin levels and resist the borer. Maples and various non-native invasive trees, trees that are taking the place of American ash species in the North American ecosystem, typically have much higher leaf tannin levels. [6] It is possible that the blue ash's increased resistance to the borer, as compared with other North American varieties, is due to a higher tannin content. If that is the case, the blue ash is less palatable for maturing frogs than those most threatened by the borer. Ash species native to North America also provide important habitat and food for various other creatures that are native to North America. [7]

Conservation status

As of 2014, blue ash appears to be least threatened in comparison to other North American ash by the infestation of the emerald ash borer. First detected in North America in 2002, this invasive beetle has since spread throughout much of this tree's range. Approximately sixty to seventy percent of these trees survive [8] compared to other ash such as black ash and green ash where up to ninety-nine percent of them are killed by emerald ash borer. In 2017, the blue ash, along with other ashes native to the Eastern United States such as the black ash, green ash and white ash were assessed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. This is due to the non-native invasive emerald ash borer's massive population increase across the native habitat of these trees. [1]

In Canada, Fraxinus quadrangulata is legally protected as a threatened species under the Species at Risk Act. [9] F. quadrangulata is found in Ontario and has experienced habitat fragmentation within that portion of its range. Ongoing threats to this species in Canada may include white-tailed deer browsing of young trees and emerald ash borer activity, although the impact of these threats is not well defined at present. [10]

Related Research Articles

<i>Fraxinus</i> Genus of plants

Fraxinus, commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous trees, although some subtropical species are evergreen trees. The genus is widespread throughout much of Europe, Asia, and North America.

<i>Fraxinus americana</i> Species of ash

Fraxinus americana, the white ash or American ash, is a fast-growing species of ash tree native to eastern and central North America.

<i>Fraxinus excelsior</i> Species of deciduous tree in the family Oleaceae

Fraxinus excelsior, known as the ash, or European ash or common ash to distinguish it from other types of ash, is a flowering plant species in the olive family Oleaceae. It is native throughout mainland Europe east to the Caucasus and Alborz mountains, and Great Britain and Ireland, the latter determining its western boundary. The northernmost location is in the Trondheimsfjord region of Norway. The species is widely cultivated and reportedly naturalised in New Zealand and in scattered locales in the United States and Canada.

<i>Acer negundo</i> Species of tree commonly known as boxelder maple

Acer negundo, the box elder, boxelder maple, Manitoba maple or ash-leaved maple, is a species of maple native to North America. It is a fast-growing, short-lived tree with opposite, compound leaves. It is sometimes considered a weedy or invasive species, and has been introduced to and naturalized throughout much of the world, including in South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, much of Europe, and parts of Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emerald ash borer</span> Species of beetle

The emerald ash borer, also known by the acronym EAB, is a green buprestid or jewel beetle native to north-eastern Asia that feeds on ash species. Females lay eggs in bark crevices on ash trees, and larvae feed underneath the bark of ash trees to emerge as adults in one to two years. In its native range, it is typically found at low densities and does not cause significant damage to trees native to the area. Outside its native range, it is an invasive species and is highly destructive to ash trees native to Europe and North America. Before it was found in North America, very little was known about emerald ash borer in its native range; this has resulted in much of the research on its biology being focused in North America. Local governments in North America are attempting to control it by monitoring its spread, diversifying tree species, and through the use of insecticides and biological control.

<i>Fraxinus pennsylvanica</i> Species of ash

Fraxinus pennsylvanica, the green ash or red ash, is a species of ash native to eastern and central North America, from Nova Scotia west to southeastern Alberta and eastern Colorado, south to northern Florida, and southwest to Oklahoma and eastern Texas. It has spread and become naturalized in much of the western United States and also in Europe from Spain to Russia.

<i>Fraxinus albicans</i> Species of flowering plant

Fraxinus albicans, commonly called the Texas ash, is a species of tree in the olive family (Oleaceae). It is native to North America, where it is found from eastern Texas and southern Oklahoma in the United States, to the state of Durango in Mexico. Its natural habitat is in dry, rocky slopes, often over limestone.

<i>Fraxinus latifolia</i> Species of ash

Fraxinus latifolia, the Oregon ash, is a member of the ash genus Fraxinus, native to western North America.

<i>Fraxinus nigra</i> Species of ash

Fraxinus nigra, the black ash, is a species of ash native to much of eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, from western Newfoundland west to southeastern Manitoba, and south to Illinois and northern Virginia. Formerly abundant, as of 2017 the species is threatened with near total extirpation throughout its range within the next century as a result of infestation by an invasive parasitic insect known as the emerald ash borer.

<i>Fraxinus angustifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Fraxinus angustifolia, the narrow-leaved ash, is a species of Fraxinus native to Central Europe and Southern Europe, Northwest Africa, and Southwest Asia.

<i>Fraxinus ornus</i> Species of ash

Fraxinus ornus, the manna ash or South European flowering ash, is a species of Fraxinus native to Southern Europe and Southwestern Asia, from Spain and Italy north to Austria and the Czech Republic, and east through the Balkans, Turkey, and western Syria to Lebanon and Armenia.

<i>Chionanthus virginicus</i> Species of tree

Chionanthus virginicus is a tree native to the savannas and lowlands of the northeastern and southeastern United States, from Massachusetts south to Florida, and west to Oklahoma and Texas.

<i>Fraxinus mandschurica</i> Species of ash

Fraxinus mandshurica, the Manchurian ash, is a species of Fraxinus native to northeastern Asia in northern China, Korea, Japan and southeastern Russia.

<i>Fraxinus dipetala</i> Species of ash

Fraxinus dipetala, the California ash or two-petal ash, is a species of ash native to southwestern North America in the United States in northwestern Arizona, California, southern Nevada, and Utah, and in Mexico in northern Baja California. It grows at altitudes of 100–1,300 m.

<i>Fraxinus profunda</i> Species of ash

Fraxinus profunda, the pumpkin ash, is a species of ash (Fraxinus) native to eastern North America, where it has a scattered distribution on the Atlantic coastal plain and interior lowland river valleys from the Lake Erie basin in Ontario and New York west to Illinois, southwest to Missouri and southeast to northern Florida. It grows in bottomland habitats, such as swamps, floodplains and riverbanks. It is threatened by the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect which has caused widespread destruction of ash trees in eastern North America.

<i>Fraxinus caroliniana</i> Species of ash

Fraxinus caroliniana, the pop ash, Florida ash, swamp ash, Carolina ash, or water ash, is a species of ash tree native from Cuba through the subtropical Southeastern United States from southern Virginia to Texas. It was originally described by the botanist Philip Miller. It is a small tree about 40 ft. Leaves are compound, opposite, 7–12 in long, leaflets 5–7 in, ovate to oblong, coarsely serrate or entire, 3–6 in long, 2–3 in wide. Fruit is frequently 3-winged (samara) with flat seed portion; seed sometimes a bright violet color. It is the smallest of eastern North American ash species, wood light, soft, weak, 22 lbs./cu.ft. Typical to coastal swamps and subtropical lowlands. Like other species in the section Melioides, Fraxinus caroliniana is dioecious, with male and female flowers produced on separate individuals.

<i>Cerceris fumipennis</i>

Cerceris fumipennis, the only species of buprestid-hunting Crabronidae occurring in eastern North America, is found throughout the continental United States east of the Rockies: from Texas and Florida north to Maine, Wyoming, and into Canada. The wasps most often nest in open areas of hard-packed sandy soil surrounded by woody habitat suitable for their buprestid beetle prey.

<i>Tetrastichus planipennisi</i> Species of wasp

Tetrastichus planipennisi is a parasitic non-stinging wasp of the family Eulophidae which is native to North Asia. It is a parasitoid of the emerald ash borer, an invasive species which has destroyed tens of millions of ash trees in its introduced range in North America. As part of the campaign against the emerald ash borer (EAB), American scientists in conjunction with the Chinese Academy of Forestry searched since 2003 for its natural enemies in the wild leading to the discovery of several parasitoid wasps, including Tetrastichus planipennisi which is a gregarious endoparasitoid of EAB larvae on Manchurian Ash and has been recorded to attack and kill up to 50 percent of EAB larvae.

<i>Fraxinus parryi</i> Species of tree

Fraxinus parryi, known by common names chaparral ash, crucecilla, and fresnillo, is a species of ash native to southwestern North America, growing as a shrub or a small tree.

References

  1. 1 2 Westwood, M.; Oldfield, S.; Jerome, D.; Romero-Severson, J. (2017). "Fraxinus quadrangulata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2017: e.T61919112A61919114. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-2.RLTS.T61919112A61919114.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ↑ "Fraxinus Quadragulata Range Map" (PDF). United States Geological Survey . Retrieved 2008-03-02.
  3. 1 2 Virtual Herbarium of the Chicago Region: Fraxinus quadrangulata Archived 2007-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
  4. 1 2 3 Oklahoma Biological Survey: Fraxinus quadrangulata Archived 2008-10-20 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ "Brief History of Blue Ash". City of Blue Ash, Ohio. Archived from the original on 2013-10-12.
  6. 1 2 3 Stephens, Jeffrey; Bervan, Keith; Tiegs, Scott (3 May 2013). "Anthropogenic changes to leaf litter input affect the fitness of a larval amphibian". Freshwater Biology. 58 (8): 1631–1646. doi:10.1111/fwb.12155.
  7. ↑ "Black Ash". Illinois Wildflowers. Dr. John Hilty. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  8. ↑ Tanis, S. R.; McCullough, D. G. (25 July 2012). "Differential persistence of blue ash and white ash following emerald ash borer invasion". Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 42 (8): 1542–1550. doi:10.1139/x2012-103.
  9. ↑ "Blue Ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata)". Species at risk public registry. Government of Canada. 12 December 2023. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
  10. ↑ COSEWIC (2014). "COSEWIC Assessment and Status Report on the Blue Ash Fraxinus quadrangulata in Canada" (PDF). Ottawa: Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
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