''Fraxinus lanuginosa'' (Japanese ash;

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: アオダモ Aodamo) is a species of

ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

native to Japan and to the

Primorye Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of t ...

region of eastern

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. ''Fraxinus lanuginosa''is a medium-sized

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

growing to 10–15 m tall with a trunk up to 50 cm diameter. The bark is smooth, dark grey. The

bud In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or embryonic shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of a stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormant condition, or it may form a shoot immediately. Buds may be spec ...

s are pale pinkish-brown to grey-brown, with a dense covering of short grey hairs. The leaves are in opposite pairs, pinnate, 10–15 cm long, with 3-7 leaflets; the leaflets are broad ovoid, 4–7 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, downy at the base on the underside, with a finely serrated margin, and short indistinct petiolules. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are produced in panicles after the new leaves appear in late spring, each flower with four slender creamy white petals 5–7 mm long; they are pollinated by

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is a slender samara 2–4 cm long and 3–5 mm broad, reddish, ripening brown.''This article includes text translated from the Japanese Wikipedia article アオダモAodamo web
''Fraxinus lanuginosa''
(in Japanese

Japan Trees Guide

(in Japanese

Hakuba Village

(in Japanese

Bean, W. J. (1978). ''Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles'' 8th ed., vol. 2. John Murray . In the population of ''F. lanuginosa'' native to central Hokkaidō, northern Japan, " hermaphrodites and males commonly coexist in populations of the species. Hermaphrodites and males have identical flowering phenologies and pollen morphologies". It is closely related to '' Fraxinus ornus'' from Europe and southwest Asia, sharing similar flower characters.

Cultivation and uses

The wood is strong and hard, with a tenacity that allows it to be bent into curves, such as for making tennis rackets and skis. Its wood is also used in the making of

baseball bat A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the sport of baseball to hit the ball after it is thrown by the pitcher. By regulation it may be no more than in diameter at the thickest part and no more than in length. Although histor ...

s and

electric guitars An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

.Guitar Wood Types & Tones FAQ
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References

External links

*Peter B. Kitin, Tomoyuki Fujii, Hisashi Abe and Ryo Funada (2004). Anatomy of the vessel network within and between tree rings of ''Fraxinus lanuginosa'' (Oleaceae). ''American Journal of Botany'' 91: 779-788. Availabl
online
{{Authority control lanuginosa Trees of Japan Trees of Asia Plants described in 1926