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Singleleaf ash

May 16, 2009 by Jonas Dupuich

While hiking around Moab looking for Utah junipers, Konnor and I came across a number of neat deciduous trees I was not familiar with. My favorite was the singleleaf ash, Fraxinus anomala. The species, a member of the olive family, is an anomoly among ash because it has a single rather than a compound leaf.

Singleleaf ash foliage

Singleleaf ash foliage

Interestingly, the singleleaf ash takes on the same growth habit as the junipers they grow near – a somewhat rare and compelling trait among deciduous trees. Their deadwood was very hard. And as you can see from the photos, they do surprisingly well in dry sandstone. The tree below was growing near the edge of a ridge about 50′ above a large basin.

Singleleaf ash

Singleleaf ash

Another nice characteristic of the singleleaf ash we saw is that most were bonsai-sized. I’ve never seen them grown as bonsai and will be curious to find out if collected trees do well in contianers. If so, they could make a nice addition to the very small number of quality collected deciduous bonsai that are native to the U.S.

Many of the ash we saw crept along the ground, their roots buried deep within the rock.
Growing along the ground

Growing along the ground

Small lifeline

A very small lifeline keeps this tree’s few branches alive

Although the trunk below expresses adversity, the foliage reveals the tree’s vigor.

A healthy singleleaf ash

A healthy singleleaf ash

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Filed Under: Excursions Tagged With: Collecting, Deadwood, Utah

Previous Post: « Pinyon pines
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dannon says

    May 16, 2009 at 3:30 pm

    Wow! The single leaf ash, just great looking stuff, I’ve got to go collecting!!! Great job with your blog BTW it’s been great keeping up with your site. A question about collecting do you get permits or go with someone that allready has one, that’s if you need one anyway for all I know it could just be permision from a person on the spot? I’ve never been collecting and in Virginia we have a ton of great trees and shrubs that would be great for bonsai?

  2. xwires says

    May 16, 2009 at 5:28 pm

    @Dannon – thanks so much for the note, I appreciate it. I actually don’t know much about the permit process as I’ve never been through it – will likely write about it when/if I do. Although I’ve been on a collecting trip, I have yet to dig and take a tree home myself.

  3. Dannon says

    May 16, 2009 at 5:54 pm

    Quick reply! It’s a little late for collecting around where I am but I will be organizeing something for next year for sure, I need to make it out west for some junipers!!! I would like to see more of an effort on the east coast for collecting, this side of the “U,S” needs to catch up to you guys collecting scene out west. 🙂

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