Fraxinus (Ash) Notes

Most campus ashes provide pleasing fall color, though not the most conspicuous ones, the evergreen Shamel ashes around the Claw fountain at the Bookstore. The leaves of most ash species are pinnately compound, and all ashes have oppositely arranged leaves (two to a node), as in other familiar members of the Oleaceae, including olive, privet, and lilac. Female flowers are followed by winged samaras, usually borne in drooping clusters and often persisting through winter on the bare boughs. Fraxinus is classical Latin for the ash tree.