Street Trees Through the Seasons - Raywood Ash

Fraxinus angustifolia ‘Raywood’ (Raywood Ash, Claret Ash) is in the Oleaceae family. It is a cultivar of the southwestern European and North African species, which was developed in Australia and introduced into North America in the mid-1950s.

The tree is deciduous, and key diagnostics include leaves that are opposite, pinnately compound, 5” long, dark shiny green, with 5 or 7-9 narrow lanceolate leaflets, sparsely spaced and sessile along the midrib stem, with sparsely serrate edges and dark purplish red fall color. Insignificant flowers are rarely seen. Fruit is tightly bunched clusters of winged achene seed capsules. Bark is thin, smooth, greenish gray, and developing vertical fissures and scaly plates with age.

Fraxinus angustifolia ‘Raywood’ - leaves and form.

Requires moderate watering in well-drained soils, and is widely used as a parking lot, street, or patio shade tree. Fall color in cold winter.

Winter - bare, twiggy, ascending branches.	Spring - soft leaves shimmer in the breeze.
Summer - leaves provide deep shade.	Fall - leaves turn dark purplish red.

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