Fraxinus malacophylla seed

LATIN NAME: FRAXINUS MALACOPHYLLA

COMMON NAME: Softleaf Ash

The softleaf ash mists the tall, deciduous tree with the pinnate leaves of the many broad, softly hairy, grey-green leaflets, the undersides misted with the soft hairs, and the small, greenish flowers that open through the spring, the winged keys following in the dense clusters. The tree grows steadily into the broad, rounded crown, and it likes the sun, and the deep, moist, well-drained soil.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The softly hairy foliage of the softleaf ash gives it a recognised place in the research on the warm-climate ash trees of the great ash group, and the malacophylla species appears in the studies of the leaf-hair pigments and the broad-leaved woodland growth. The work looks at the way the soft hairs mist the undersides, the tough timber, and the seed biology. The foresters value the wood, and the growers of the warm-climate shade and avenue trees keep the species in their catalogues.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the warm, sunny ground, the softleaf ash mists the summer garden with the soft, grey leaves. The foliage lights the garden, the keys feed the birds, and the timber serves the furniture and the tool handles. It thrives in the deep, moist, well-drained, sunny ground. Grey-misted, broad and shady.

To grow the Softleaf Ash from seed, keep the seeds in the moist peat in the bag in the fridge, then sow them into the sandy drills of the tray, keep the tray bright and gently watered.

Keep the seeds in the moist peat in the bag in the fridge, and pot the young trees on as they grow. The mist leaves come within a few seasons. , and the young trees pop up through the spring. The mist leaves will grey through the season.

Trees to ca. 10 m. Branchlets ridged, 4-angled when young, brown tomentose; buds naked. Leaves to ca. 25 cm; petiole 2-5 cm; axis densely brown tomentose; leaflets 9-15, sessile or subsessile; leaflet blade elliptic to lanceolate-elliptic, (1.5-)3-8(-10) × (1-)1.5-4 cm, thin leathery, adaxially densely brown tomentose to glabrescent, abaxially densely pale villous to yellow tomentose, especially denser along veins and margin, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, rarely rounded, oblique, margin entire, apex acute or obtuse to retuse; primary veins 7-10 on each side of midrib. Panicles terminal or lateral, ca. 16 cm, many flowered; bracts linear, 2-3 mm. Flowers bisexual, appearing after leaves. Pedicel ca. 3 mm. Calyx cupu-lar, ca. 1 mm, apically truncate or with broadly deltate teeth. Corolla white; lobes linear, ca. 3 mm. Stamens scarcely exceeding corolla lobes. Samara narrowly spatulate, 3-4 cm × 6-7 mm; wing decurrent to about middle of nutlet. Fl. Jun, fr. Sep-Oct.