4. Fraxinus profunda (Bush) Bush (pumpkin ash, red ash)

F. profunda var. ashei E.J. Palmer

F. americana var. profunda Bush

F. tomentosa F. Michx., an illegitimate name

Pl. 461 e, f; Map 2098

Plants trees to 40 m tall with a narrow, open crown and spreading branches, the trunk often swollen at the base, dioecious or incompletely dioecious. Twigs circular in cross-section, unwinged, minutely velvety-hairy (at least when young), not glaucous, gray to grayish brown with relatively conspicuous, pale, circular to elongate lenticels, the leaf scars truncate to shallowly concave on the apical side on both new and older twigs. Terminal buds 3–9 mm long, ovoid to conic, slightly longer than wide, mostly bluntly pointed at the tip, reddish brown, velvety-hairy, with usually 3 pairs of scales, the outermost pair relatively short and tightly to loosely appressed. Leaves 15–40 cm long, the petiole velvety-hairy. Leaflets 7 or 9, 5–25 cm long, 2.5–12.0 cm wide, variable in shape but mostly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, ovate, or elliptic, rounded, angled or short-tapered to the sometimes slightly apically winged stalk (this mostly 8–20 mm long on the terminal leaflet and 5–15 mm long on lateral leaflets), relatively thick and somewhat leathery, the upper surface glabrous, often somewhat shiny, the undersurface moderately to densely short-hairy, yellowish green to pale green but not whitened, the margins entire or rarely with sparse, blunt teeth. Calyces present, persistent at fruiting, 0.5–1.5 mm long in staminate flowers, (1.0–)2.5–4.0 mm long in pistillate flowers (sometimes becoming enlarged to 6 mm at fruiting). Fruits 45–80 mm long, the slender stalk 5–12 mm long, the body 10–30 mm long, 2–3 mm wide, relatively stout, narrowly oblong in outline, not flattened, the wing 7–13 mm wide, narrowly oblanceolate to narrowly oblong-lanceolate or somewhat spatulate, more or less rounded at the tip, less commonly with a small notch or an abrupt, minute, sharp point, extending narrowly more than 1/2 the way along each side of the body, sometimes nearly to the base. 2n=138. April–May.

Uncommon, restricted to the Mississippi Lowlands Division (eastern U.S. west to Illinois, Missouri, and Louisiana; Canada). Swamps, bottomland forests, and uncommonly acid seeps; also wet roadsides.

Pumpkin ash, which originally was described based on specimens collected in the Missouri Bootheel (Nesom, 2010b), may have originated as an autopolyploid of F. pennsylvanica or may represent an allopolyploid derived from hybridization between F. americana and F. pennsylvanica (Hardin, 1974; G. N. Miller, 1955; Santamour, 1962; Wright, 1965; K. A. Wilson and Wood, 1959). Molecular data (Wallander, 2008) appear to support the hybrid hypothesis. The species has the largest leaves and fruits among Missouri ashes, but can be difficult to distinguish from F. pennsylvanica. It grows in association with other lowland trees such as Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich. (Cupressaceae), Planera aquatica (Ulmaceae), and Nyssa aquatica L. (Cornaceae). The common name derives from the appearance of the swollen base of the trunk at sites that are flooded for long periods of time. Its wood is of some commercial value for tool and implement handles. No horticultural uses are known. Ducks, other birds, and rodents reportedly eat the seeds.