Ptelea trifoliata

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Ptelea trifoliata
Ptelea trifoliata Arkansas.jpg
Common hoptree fruit
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Sapindales
Family: Rutaceae
Genus: Ptelea
Species:
P. trifoliata
Binomial name
Ptelea trifoliata
Ptelea trifoliata range map.jpg
Generalized natural range
Synonyms [3]
  • Dodonaea trifoliataTrew
  • Ptelea angustifoliaBenth.
  • Ptelea coahuilensisGreene
  • Ptelea confinisGreene
  • Ptelea pallidaGreene
  • Ptelea persicifoliaGreene
  • Ptelea polyadeniaGreene
  • Ptelea pumilaGreene

Ptelea trifoliata, commonly known as common hoptree, [4] wafer ash, [5] stinking ash, [6] [7] and skunk bush, [7] [8] is a species of flowering plant in the citrus family (Rutaceae). It is native to North America, where it is found in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It is a deciduous shrub or tree, [9] [10] with alternate, trifoliate leaves.

Contents

Description

Ptelea trifoliata is a small tree, or often a shrub of a few spreading stems, growing to around 6–8 m (20–26 ft) tall with a broad crown. [11] The bark is reddish brown to gray brown, with short horizontal lenticels (warty corky ridges), becoming slightly scaly, The plant has an unpleasant odor and bitter taste. Branchlets are dark reddish brown, shining, covered with small excrescences. The twigs are slender to moderately stout, brown with deep U-shaped leaf scars, and with short, light brown, fuzzy buds. It has thick fleshy roots. [12]

Leaves

Its leaves are alternate and compound with three leaflets, dotted with oil glands. The leaflets are sessile, ovate or oblong, 3–5 in (7.6–12.7 cm) long by 2–3 in (5.1–7.6 cm) broad, pointed at the base, entire or serrate, and gradually pointed at the apex. They are feather-veined, with a prominent midrib and primary veins. They come out of the bud conduplicate and very downy. When fully grown the leaves are dark green and shiny above and paler green beneath. In autumn they turn a rusty yellow. The petioles are stout, 6.3–7.6 cm (2.5–3.0 in) long, with an enlarged base. Stipules are absent. The western and southwestern forms have smaller leaves, 5–11 cm (2.0–4.3 in), than the eastern forms 10–18 cm (3.9–7.1 in), an adaptation to the drier climates in the west.

Flowers

The flowers are small, 1–2 cm (0.39–0.79 in) across, with 4–5 narrow, greenish white petals. The pedicels are downy. The 4- or 5-part calyx is downy and imbricate in bud. The corolla has four or five petals which are white, downy, spreading, hypogynous, and imbricate in bud. The five stamens alternate with the petals. The pistillate flowers bear rudimentary anthers. The filaments are awl-shaped and more-or-less hairy. The anthers are ovate or cordate, two-celled, with cells opening longitudinally. The ovaries are superior, hairy, abortive in the staminate flowers, two to three-celled. The style is short, the stigma 2- or 3-lobed, with two ovules per cell. Fertile and sterile flowers are produced together in terminal, spreading, compound cymes—the sterile being usually fewer and falling after the anther cells mature. [12]

Flowers are produced in May and June. Some find the odor unpleasant but to others the plant has a delicious scent.

Fruit

The fruit is a round wafer-like papery samara, 2–2.5 cm (0.79–0.98 in) across, light brown, and two-seeded. The fruit ripens in October, and is held on the tree until high winds shake them loose in the early winter. [12]

Wood

Its wood is yellow brown; heavy, hard, close-grained, satiny. The specific gravity is 0.8319; weight per cubic foot is 51.84 lb (23.51 kg). [12]

Taxonomy

While Ptelea trifoliata is most often treated as a single species with subspecies and/or varieties in different distribution ranges, [9] [13] some botanists[ who? ] treat the various hoptrees as a group of four or more closely related species:

The specific epithet "trifoliata" refers to the three-parted compound leaf. [12]

Other common names for this shrub include stinking prairie bush, Carolina shrub-trefoil, tree-trefoil, swamp dogwood, ague bark, paleleaf hoptree, prairie-grub, prickaway-anise, quinine tree, sang-tree, water-ash, western hoptree, wingseed, and woolly hoptree. [6] [7] [8] [14] [15]

Distribution and habitat

Ptelea trifoliata is native to North America, where its northern limits are in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. It is native through much of the eastern and southwestern United States, although it is absent from some areas of the Upper Midwest and is rare in much of New England. [16] Its southern limits are in Mexico. [5] [17]

It has a wide-ranging natural habitat. In the Southeastern United States it is most often found in rocky forests, in both moist and dry soil, often associated with calcareous or mafic substrates. [18] In the Midwest, habitats include forests, savannas, prairies, glades, and sand dunes. [19] [20] In Arizona it is common in canyons. [21]

Ecology

Larva of the giant swallowtail butterfly Papilio cresphontes feed on the leaves. [22] Treehoppers of the genus Enchenopa infest the branches, laying white-frothy masses of eggs on the branch undersides. [22] Several ant species tend to the treehoppers, including Camponotus pennsylvanicus , Formica montana , and Formica subsericea . [22] Several bee species have been documented visiting the flowers of wafer ash, including Agapostemon virescens , Andrena commoda , Andrena crataegi , Andrena cressonii , Apis mellifera , Bombus auricomus , Bombus bimaculatus , Bombus impatiens , Ceratina calcarata , Ceratina dupla , Ceratina mikmaqi , and Lasioglossum imitatum . [22]

Uses

It has several Native American uses as a seasoning and as an herbal medicine for different ailments. [23]

Numerous cultivars have been developed for ornamental use in parks and gardens. The cultivar 'Aurea' with golden leaves has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. [24] [25]

German immigrants to Texas in the 19th century used its seeds in place of hops in the beer-making process, lending the species its common name. [26]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samara (fruit)</span> Non-opening dry fruit with a flattened wing

A samara is a winged achene, a type of fruit in which a flattened wing of fibrous, papery tissue develops from the ovary wall. A samara is a simple dry fruit, and is indehiscent. The shape of a samara enables the wind to carry the seed further away from the tree than regular seeds would go, and is thus a form of anemochory.

<i>Toxicodendron radicans</i> Species of plant

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<i>Acer negundo</i> Species of maple

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

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<i>Kalmia</i> Genus of flowering plants in the heath family Ericaceae

Kalmia is a genus of about ten species of evergreen shrubs from 0.2–5 m tall, in the family Ericaceae (heath). They are native to North America and Cuba. They grow in acidic soils, with different species in wet acid bog habitats and dry, sandy soils.

<i>Populus nigra</i> Species of plant

Populus nigra, the black poplar, is a species of cottonwood poplar, the type species of section Aigeiros of the genus Populus, native to Europe, southwest and central Asia, and northwest Africa.

<i>Ptelea</i> Genus of flowering plants

Ptelea is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. The name, of Greek derivation, is the classical name of the elm tree. Carl Linnaeus used that word for this genus because of the resemblance of its fruit to that of the elm. Members of the genus are commonly known as hoptrees.

<i>Magnolia sieboldii</i> Species of tree

Magnolia sieboldii, or Siebold's magnolia, also known as Korean mountain magnolia and Oyama magnolia, is a species of Magnolia native to east Asia in China, Japan, and Korea. It is named after the German doctor Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796–1866).

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

Echinacea angustifolia, the narrow-leaved purple coneflower or blacksamson echinacea, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to North America, where it is widespread across much of the Great Plains of central Canada and the central United States, with additional populations in surrounding regions.

<i>Mentha arvensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Mentha arvensis, the corn mint, field mint, or wild mint, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. It has a circumboreal distribution, being native to the temperate regions of Europe and western and central Asia, east to the Himalaya and eastern Siberia, and North America. Mentha canadensis, the related species, is also included in Mentha arvensis by some authors as two varieties, M. arvensis var. glabrata Fernald and M. arvensis var. piperascens Malinv. ex L. H. Bailey.

<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>Rhododendron ponticum</i> Species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae

Rhododendron ponticum, called common rhododendron or pontic rhododendron, is a species of flowering plant in the Rhododendron genus of the heath family Ericaceae. It is native to the Iberian Peninsula in southwest Europe and the Caucasus region in northern West Asia.

<i>Hakea salicifolia</i> Species of plant in the family Proteaceae endemic to eastern Australia

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<i>Asterolasia</i> Genus of flowering plants

Asterolasia is a genus of seventeen species of erect or prostrate shrubs in the family Rutaceae, and is endemic to Australia. The leaves are simple and arranged alternately, the flowers arranged in umbel-like groups on the ends of branchlets or in leaf axils, usually with five sepals, five petals and ten to twenty-five stamens. There are seventeen species and they are found in all Australian mainland states but not in the Northern Territory.

<i>Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus</i> Species of flowering plant

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P. trifoliata may refer to:

<i>Enchenopa binotata</i> complex Species of true bug

Enchenopa binotata is a complex of multiple species found mostly in Eastern North America, but have also been reported in Central America. They are commonly referred to as treehoppers and are sap-feeding insects. The species in the complex look similar to each other in morphology, but are identified as different species by the host plant they occupy.

<i>Tilia caroliniana</i> Species of tree

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<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. IUCN SSC Global Tree Specialist Group.; Botanic Gardens Conservation International; et al. (BGCI) (2020). "Ptelea trifoliata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2020: e.T156771719A156771721. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-1.RLTS.T156771719A156771721.en . Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. "Ptelea trifoliata". Germplasm Resources Information Network . Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture . Retrieved 2009-12-01.
  3. The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species , retrieved 16 October 2015
  4. NRCS. "Ptelea trifoliata". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of Texas at Austin". www.wildflower.org. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
  6. 1 2 "Wafer-ash". www.mortonarb.org. The Morton Arboretum. Retrieved 2018-11-28.
  7. 1 2 3 Coder, K. D. (2016). "Hoptree / Wafer-Ash (Ptelea trifoliata)" (PDF). warnell.uga.edu. Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources, University of Georgia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-04-09. Retrieved 2018-11-28.
  8. 1 2 Nelson, Gil (1996). The shrubs and woody vines of Florida : a reference and field guide (1st ed.). Pineapple Press. ISBN   9781561641109.
  9. 1 2 NRCS. "Ptelea trifoliata". PLANTS Database. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 2011-08-24.
  10. "ITIS Standard Report Page: Ptelea trifoliata". www.itis.gov. Archived from the original on 2008-12-05.
  11. RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN   978-1405332965.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Keeler, Harriet L. (1900). Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp.  32–35.
  13. "Ptelea trifoliata L." Plants of the World Online . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved 2018-11-28.
  14. Nowick, Elaine (2014). Historical common names of Great Plains plants, with scientific names index. Lulu.com. ISBN   9781609620585.
  15. Torrey, John (1843). A Flora of the State of New-York, comprising full descriptions of all the indigenous and naturalized plants hitherto discovered in the State; with remarks on their economical and medicinal properties. Albany, New York: Carroll and Cook.
  16. "Ptelea trifoliata". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  17. "Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-05-24. Retrieved 2012-05-27.
  18. Alan Weakley (2015). "Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States".
  19. "Wafer Ash (Ptelea trifoliata)". www.illinoiswildflowers.info. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
  20. Yatskievych, George (2013). Flora of Missouri, Volume 3. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. p. 1049.
  21. "Ptelea trifoliata, Common Hoptree, Southwest Desert Flora". southwestdesertflora.com. Retrieved 2024-12-11.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Wilhelm, Gerould; Rericha, Laura (2017). Flora of the Chicago Region: A Floristic and Ecological Synthesis. Indiana Academy of Sciences.
  23. "University of Michigan – Dearborn: Native American Ethnobotany, species account". herb.umd.umich.edu. Archived from the original on 2012-03-25.
  24. "RHS Plant Selector – Ptelea trifoliata 'Aurea'". Archived from the original on 10 August 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  25. "AGM Plants - Ornamental" (PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 82. Retrieved 23 September 2018.
  26. Cox, Paul W.; Leslie, Patty (1988). Texas Trees: A Friendly Guide. Corona Publishing Company. ISBN   0931722675.