Fraxinus latifolia

Oregon ash

Family: Oleaceae · Type: tree · Native

Oregon ash is a native tree found in northwestern California, the California Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, and North Coast Ranges in canyons, streambanks, and woodlands at elevations below 1,700 meters. Flowering from March to May, this tree produces small greenish flowers without petals in distinctive clusters. Growing up to 25 meters tall with a trunk diameter of 1.5 meters, it features gray-brown bark with deep furrows and cylindrical twigs. Its compound leaves have 5 to 7 leaflets, each 4 to 11 centimeters long and ovate or oblong-ovate, with a terminal leaflet slightly larger than the lateral ones. The fruit is a distinctive winged samara 25 to 50 millimeters long, with a flat wing extending down half to three-quarters of the seed body.

Habitat: Canyons, streambanks, woodland

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 1700 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN, GV, SnFrB, MP

California counties: Shasta, Kern, Mendocino, Lake, Tulare, Nevada, Napa, San Joaquin, Merced, Madera, Humboldt, Fresno, Siskiyou, Del Norte, Alameda, Butte, Marin, Trinity, Amador, San Mateo, Tuolumne, Sonoma, Santa Clara, Riverside, Plumas, Modoc, El Dorado, Stanislaus, Sutter, Los Angeles, Calaveras, San Diego, Solano, Tehama, Yuba, Colusa, Mariposa, Sacramento, Contra Costa, Yolo, Glenn, Lassen, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.