Common Name: singleleaf ash

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Tree

General: Low spreading shrub or small tree 2-6 m tall with glabrous, distinctly quadrangular young twigs, older twigs obtusely quadrangular to nearly terete; bark tawny, reddish-brown, eventually gray and faintly checked.

Leaves: Simple to 2-3 foliolate, on slender petioles 1-4 cm long, glabrous, leathery, channelled along upper side; blades broadly ovate to suborbicular, 2-5.5 cm wide, 2-6 cm long, glabrous, distinctly paler beneath than above, inconspicuous serrulate margin.

Flowers: Inflorescences 4-6 cm long, borne on year-old twigs, in short panicles; some flowers perfect, others pistillate, calyces cup-shaped, 1-1.3 mm long, about as wide, thin with four low, broadly deltoid teeth, orange stamens.

Fruits: Fruit a samara, obovate, 8-10 mm wide, 15-22 mm long, wing obvious to base of fruit.

Ecology: Found in canyons and bottomlands in lower elevations, often on dry slopes in higher elevations, ranges from 2,000-8,000 ft (610-2438 m); flowers March-May.

Notes: There is a recognized var. lowellii which is similar to F. anomala but with 3-7 leaflets, the blades ovate to oblong-lanceolate, cuneate at the base and markedly crenate-serrate along the margins. The two are known to intergrade.

Ethnobotany: Used ceremonially by the Hopi.

Etymology: Fraxinus is the classical Latin name for the genus, while anomala means unusual, referring to the simple leaves in a genus characterized by compound leaves.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010