White ash is the largest of the ashes native to North America. Its growth is very responsive when growing in rich soils but is never a dominant forest species. Ash has been a part of American sports since the 1890s when Louisville Slugger started manufacturing a baseball bat with ash. Ash is still considered the best baseball bat material to use.
1. The Silviculture of White Ash
Steve Nix
One of the earliest reported uses of white ash was as a snake bite preventive. Ash leaves in a hunter's pocket or boots were "proved" to be offensive to rattlesnakes and thereby provided protection from them. Seeds of white ash are eaten by the wood duck, bob white, purple finch, pine grosbeak, and fox squirrel. White ash is used in yard, street, and roadside plantings and also has been planted on strip mines with some success.
2. The Images of White Ash
Forestryimages.org provides several images of parts of white ash. The tree is a hardwood and the lineal taxonomy is Magnoliopsida > Scrophulariales > Oleaceae > Fraxinus americana. White ash is also commonly called Biltmore ash or Biltmore white ash.
3. The Range of White Ash
USFS
White ash grows naturally from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, to northern Florida in the east, and to eastern Minnesota south to eastern Texas at the western edge of its range.
4. White Ash at Virginia Tech
Leaf: Opposite, pinnately compound with 7 serrate to entire leaflets that are ovate to somewhat lanceolate, 8 to 12 inches long, essentially hairless, green above and slightly paler below.Twig: Stout, gray-olive-green, hairless, leaf scars round at the bottom, notched at the top, with lateral buds in the notch; terminal bud is large, brown, with leathery scales and flanked by two lateral buds.
