Is white ash a hardwood or softwood?
White ash is a hardwood that grows in eastern North America. It's one of the most popular types of wood for use as firewood because it doesn't give off much smoke, sparks, or odor when burned. It also provides lots of heat energy per cord. It’s also great for burning indoors or outdoors.
What are white ash trees used for?
White ash trees are also valued as a homeopathic remedy for enlarged uterus, hot flashes, and foot cramps. In short, white ash trees are hardy, and are found to be somewhat free of diseases. They need moist, but well drained and fertile soil and full sun for a healthy growth.
How to use ash as fertilizer?
Using Wood Ash as a Fertilizer. Wood ash is an excellent source of lime and potassium for your garden. Not only that, using ashes in the garden also provides many of the trace elements that plants need to thrive. But wood ash fertilizer is best used either lightly scattered, or by first being composted along with the rest of your compost.
What is ash wood good for?
What is green ash wood good for
- A good BTU rating - one advantage to this wood is its high heat output. ...
- High energy - another advantage to green ash wood is that it's really easy to burn. ...
- Burns cleanly - you also should be able to get through your entire woodpile without dealing with any smoke problems.
Why are white ash trees important?
Why is it important? One of the most valuable hardwood timber trees in North America, white ash are not only treasured by the wood-working industry, but also by many creatures of the forest. White-tailed deer browse its tender leaves and beaver, porcupine, and rabbits will eat the bark of young trees.
What are ash trees good for?
Ash is used for furniture, flooring, doors, cabinetry, architectural moulding and millwork, tool handles, baseball bats, hockey sticks, oars, turnings, and is also sliced for veneer. It is a popular species for food containers due to the wood having no taste.
What is white ash wood used for?
White Ash is used extensively in sporting goods, bats, oars, pool cues, tool handles, cabinet work, high-class joinery, plywood, paneling and veneer.
Why is white ash important to wildlife?
Importance to the ecosystem. Seeds of White Ash are eaten by several species of birds. The bark is occasionally food for rabbits, beavers, and porcupines. Cavity excavating and nesting birds often use White Ash.
Is an ash tree worth anything?
Expert Response. There is no economic value to the trees unless you can find someone to use it for firewood. If you put a sign out "free firewood", it's likely someone could use it. Unfortunately, the entire U.S. is cutting down ash trees, due to the non-native emerald ash borer.
Are dead ash trees good for lumber?
Transform to Lumber. Emerald ash borers don't damage the interior of ash trees at all. So, if the tree is at least 12 inches wide and 6 feet long, turn it into lumber for your own use or sell it.
Is white ash wood valuable?
Pricing/Availability: Ash is among the least expensive utility hardwoods available domestically; it should compare similarly to oak in terms of price. Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices, but is on the IUCN Red List.
Does white ash make good lumber?
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Is white ash harder than oak?
Ash, Red Oak and White Oak are very similar in density. White Oak is the hardest, with a Janke rating of 1360. Ash rates at 1320 and Red Oak at 1290. Any of these woods can handle a fair amount of foot traffic and offer a good amount of resistance to scratches and dents.
Do squirrels eat white ash?
The seeds of the White ash are enjoyed by birds, squirrel, and other small mammals. White ash is a larval plant for tiger swallowtail and mourning cloak butterflies. The bark is eaten by rabbits, porcupines and beavers. The foliage is browsed by white-tailed deer.
What eats the white ash?
White-tailed deer and cattle browse white ash and beaver, porcupine, and rabbits may eat the bark of young trees. The seeds are eaten by wood duck, northern bobwhite, turkey, grouse, finches, grosbeaks, cardinals, fox squirrel, mice, and many other birds and small mammals.
Why are ash trees sacred?
The ash tree has long been associated with wisdom, knowledge, and divination. In a number of legends, it's connected to the gods, and considered sacred.
Why do ash trees need to be removed?
The tree can shed branches and limbs, or the whole tree may even collapse. Large trees have the potential to kill or seriously injure people and damage property and vehicles – this should be the paramount consideration for tree owners when deciding how to manage ash trees affected by ash die back.
Is my ash tree worth saving?
In many cases, yes. Ash conservation efforts are stronger than ever, and treatment options are available to protect trees. In fact, when applied correctly, EAB treatment is 85 to 95 percent effective.
What is the problem with ash trees?
Ash trees have other problems in addition to EAB including decline, other insects, and diseases. A gradual, generally irreversible decline in tree health. Symptoms include reduced growth, branch dieback, and a thinning canopy. Environmental stress and poor site conditions may contribute to decline.
Are ash trees good for backyard?
Ash trees are also low-maintenance trees that tolerate a variety of soil and weather conditions, making them perfect for your yard. Because they provide so much shade they are commonly planted in parks, along parking lots, on residential streets, and even along highways.
White Ash Facts
White ash ( Fraxinus americana) is a hardwood deciduous tree species native to North America. The ornamental tree is in the ash tree genus Fraxinus and the olive family Oleaceae. White ash trees are recognized by their compound leaves, upright spreading branches, oval or pyramidal shape, and white timber.
White Ash Leaves
Leaves on the white ash tree are identified as pinnately compound, with each leaf typically comprising of seven leaflets. Individual leaflets are pointed, lance-shaped blades growing oppositely and measuring 3” to 5” (7.5 – 13 cm) long. The entire white ash compound leaf measures 8” to 12” (20 – 30 cm) long.
White Ash Bark
White ash bark is a distinctive gray or light brown color that develops deep furrowing as the tree matures. An identifying trait of white ash bark is the distinct diamond pattern or net-like structure and pointed ridges covering the straight central trunk.
White Ash Tree Flowers
Flowers on white ash trees are clusters of small, fuzzy blooms that appear in spring. White ash trees are classified as dioecious — male and female flowers appear on separate trees. The panicles on female ash trees are loose clusters of light green to purplish flowers. Male flowers grow in tighter clusters.
White Ash Seeds (Fruit)
After flowering, only female white ash trees produce fruit in the form of drooping clusters of flattened, winged seeds called samaras. The seed cases are oval and slender and a yellowish to pale green color. Masses of these pendulous samaras persist on the tree from August throughout winter, giving the white ash tree all-season appeal.
White Ash Tree Fall Color
In the fall, white ash trees turn magnificent shades of orange-yellow, deep burgundy red, and purplish-red. In a landscape or city street, white ash trees add plenty of beauty and color in the fall. Many people describe white ash fall color as the most spectacular of all the species of native ash trees.
How to Identify White Ash Tree
White ash tree identification is by its large pinnately compound leaves with five to nine leaflets, a pattern of diamond-shaped ridges, grayish bark, and an irregular rounded crown. White ash is easy to identify in the fall by its vibrant yellow, red, or purple colors. You’ll also see characteristic clusters of samaras drooping from branches.
What is white ash?
In Saratoga NHP (upstate NY), white ash is one of the few tree species capable of regenerating in the invasive honeysuckle thickets and making it up to the canopy. Removing ash from the forest mix leaves a big question mark about what other tree species will be able to generate the future forest of the park.
What is Netn seedling?
Especially important for several NETN parks, its seedlings are one of the few northeastern species capable of penetrating thickets of invasive plants while having the fortitude to persist and reach the forest canopy.
What are the signs of EAB?
When the NETN forest crew was there in the summer of 2017, all mature ash trees they checked showed signs of EAB: numerous D-shaped exit holes, cracking and blonding of the bark, and large sections of dead canopy. Roosevelt-Vanderbilt forests would certainly be lesser without mature ash being among their ranks, but ash already make up a small portion of trees so impacts to overall forest health would be relatively minor.
What is the insect that eats ash trees?
Beautiful and deadly, the tiny Emerald Ash Borer insect holds the potential to devastate ash trees of the Northeast.
What is the Northeast Temperate Network?
As part of the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Divsion, the Northeast Temperate Network (NETN) is one of 32 netowrks across the US that work with ove 200 National Parks to help monitor the health of their natural resources. NETN works with 13 parks in the northeast US from Maine to New Jersery.
How tall is a white ash tree?
Tall, fast-growing, and a key species in the forests of the Northeast, this tree serves even greater purposes than contributing to America’s favorite pastime. A native tree of eastern North America, white ash grow in forests and open fields. They can reach heights of 80 feet with a crown that spreads 50 feet wide.
What is the feeding gallery of Emerald Ash Borer?
Ash attacked by emerald ash borer show feeding galleries created by beetle larvae when they eat the inner cambium layer of a tree. D-shaped exit holes made by the adult beetles. On right, NETN’s forest health crew tracks the health of ash and other trees and other trees at the 13 network parks.
What is the color of ash?
White Ash. Fraxinus americana. The white ash is a handsome tree native to North America. It shades many parks, large yards, and other sizable areas and provides exquisite fall color ranging from yellow to deep purple and maroon. Beyond its landscape value, the tree has made its mark as the wood used to make baseball bats.
What zone does white ash grow in?
The white ash can be expected to grow in Hardiness Zones 4–9. View Map
What is white ash used for?
No other wood has the pliant, strong, yet light qualities of ash wood. The wood is also extensively used for non-impact tool handles, furniture, hockey sticks, polo mallets, church pews and other products
How long are samaras?
Produces green to purple flowers that are not ornamental, typically blooming in April. Yields elongated samaras 1–2" in length, each with a wing, that resemble canoe paddles. Grows in an oval or pyramidal shape early on, rounding out with age.
How fast does a sage tree grow?
This tree grows at a medium rate, with height increases of 13–24" per year.
What shape does a sage grow?
Grows in an oval or pyramidal shape early on, rounding out with age.
Most Common Ash Trees in North America
The largest of the ash family, the white ash towers up to 80 feet tall with branches sometimes growing 35 feet away from the trunk. White ash is a common shade tree for its large spread. White ash grows from Nova Scotia to the Florida Panhandle and as far west as the eastern part of Texas and Minnesota.
Additional North American Ash Tree Varieties
This ash species have a limited geographical range, but it’s not quite as limited as the name implies. It thrives in the American Southwest and can be found in several states other than its namesake and northern Mexico.
Global Ash Tree Varieties
Growing from 40 to 60 feet tall, the European ash has jet-black buds as opposed to the grey or brown buds found on other ash species. It favors soils like chalk or limestone, and individual trees can live up to 250 years. The largest known European ash lives at Clapton Court in England and has almost a trunk diameter of almost 30 feet!
An Ash Tree For All Occasions
This is only a small sampling of the varying species of ash trees that grow globally, but many of them can be cultivated in yards or public spaces. Choosing an ash for your area will depend largely on the soil conditions and climate, but there is likely an ash that will grow in most areas. You will find an ash that is ideal for your yard or garden!
