Ash Tree?

Hi everybody,
I am wondering if I have an ash tree outside my house. I live just outside Boston, MA.  I took some photos on September 1 of the tree. It is likely a little dried out due to a local drought. Is it a Green Ash?

N, does the tree put out any seeds? What do they look like?

I'm not familiar with how green ash differs from white ash... I have an impression it doesn't get as big. The trunk looks very like a good-sized white ash. The leaves could be white ash, though as tangled up and insect-bitten as they are it is hard to be sure. A clean twig with one or two complete compound leaves on it would help. The growths look like some fungus or canker rather than healthy tree parts.

Miles Flansburg wrote:N, does the tree put out any seeds? What do they look like?

Hi Miles,
It hasn't put out any seeds this summer. I will post if it does.

Glenn Herbert wrote:I'm not familiar with how green ash differs from white ash... I have an impression it doesn't get as big. The trunk looks very like a good-sized white ash. The leaves could be white ash, though as tangled up and insect-bitten as they are it is hard to be sure. A clean twig with one or two complete compound leaves on it would help. The growths look like some fungus or canker rather than healthy tree parts.

Hi Glen,
Thanks for your thoughts. I plucked some leaves. I hope they help identify the tree.

I'd guess that you do have a green ash based on the five leaflets on a couple of leaves - I seldom see white ash with fewer than seven leaflets on a mature twig. It also looks just a bit darker than white ash. Here is an excellent video of the differences between ash species - I have only white ash locally, so have never had the chance to observe the differences in person.

Thank you for that video Glenn Herbert. I was able to identify my poor pocky tree in the backyard. Also could identify the magnificent tree we had in the front yard of my childhood home.

Glenn Herbert wrote:I'd guess that you do have a green ash based on the five leaflets on a couple of leaves - I seldom see white ash with fewer than seven leaflets on a mature twig. It also looks just a bit darker than white ash. Here is an excellent video of the differences between ash species - I have only white ash locally, so have never had the chance to observe the differences in person.

Hi,
Thanks for the video. I will try the various tests referenced in the video when I have some daylight. It sounds like the buds & leaf scars are dispositive for identity.

Something visible in the video but not mentioned is that, in the comparative leaflet views, the green ash leaflets are attached directly to the main stem (the "racis"), while the white ash leaflets have short stems connecting them to the racis. So you definitely have a green ash by your pictures.

Note that pretty much all ash trees with the exception of mountan ash, are at severe risk from the emerald ash borer, if that insect is in your state.  In my state of michigan, ash trees have been decimated by the millions and millions.

Here's a map of new york and the EAB:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7253.html

Troy Rhodes wrote:Note that pretty much all ash trees with the exception of mountan ash, are at severe risk from the emerald ash borer, if that insect is in your state.  In my state of michigan, ash trees have been decimated by the millions and millions.

Here's a map of new york and the EAB:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7253.html

Hi Troy,
Thanks for the heads up. While not every area in Mass. is infested, our area is. Ugh.

Glenn Herbert wrote:Something visible in the video but not mentioned is that, in the comparative leaflet views, the green ash leaflets are attached directly to the main stem (the "racis"), while the white ash leaflets have short stems connecting them to the racis. So you definitely have a green ash by your pictures.

Hi Glenn,
Thanks for pointing that out. I will check into that.

Also keep in mind that ash are opposite branched.