Family: Oleaceae, olive family
Genus species: Fraxinus americana
Leaves are pinnately compound. Each leaf has 7 or more leaflets. All leaflets within one leaf are usually about the same size.
Bark is furrowed with diamond-shaped grooves. Bark is gray or yellowish in color.
Flowers are very small, produced in small clusters. Flowers emerge before leaves in the spring. Male and female flowers are on separate trees (dioecious).
Fruit is 1 to 2 inches long. Fruit is flat, looks like the blade of a canoe paddle. Seed is almost entirely surrounded by the fruit. Fruit hangs in clusters, matures in late summer, wind-dispersed.
Fraxinus is from the Latin for "ash."
Emerald Ash Borer:
The Emerald ash borer is an Asian beetle, discovered in 2002 in Michigan and Ontario. The Emerald Ash Borer infests and kills ash trees. Damage is caused by the larvae, which feed in tunnels just below the bark. The tunnels cut off water and nutrient transport, causing branches and eventually the entire tree to die. Adults are 1/2 inch long with metallic green wing covers and a coppery red or purple abdomen. The adults leave distinctive D-shaped exit holes in the outer bark of branches and the trunk.
The Emerald Ash Borer has not been observed in Putnam County, at least, not yet, but has been observed in Marion County and is more abundant in northeastern Indiana. See map of Indiana for more information about Emerald Ash Borer infestations throughout the state.