Black Ash
Fraxinus nigra
Olive Family — Ash Genus
Rufus King Park
Jamaica, Queens County, New York
Circumference: 94 inches (7.9 feet)
Height: 85 feet
Average Crown Spread: 80 feet
Total Points:
Nominated: 1992
by:
| New York Champion
| Black Ash Fraxinus nigra Olive Family — Ash Genus Rufus King Park Jamaica, Queens County, New York Circumference: 94 inches (7.9 feet)
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The Black Ash is the northernmost ash, native to northeastern North America, and the only ash that grows in Newfoundland. Its name is from its dark brown heartwood. Early settlers called it Hoop Ash, and native Americans called it Basket Ash, because it splits easily into long, flexible, tough splints to weave baskets.
Identification
& CultureThis normally small tree with a rounded crown of upright branches is found in swamps or other moist places along streams, lakes and bogs, and can tolerate some standing water. Pure stands sometimes occur, but usually this ash grows associated with coniferous and hardwood forests of black spruce, balsam fir, white cedar, eastern hemlock, yellow birch, paper birch, and tamarack.
Black Ash trees are generally male or female, with yellowish-green flowers appearing in early spring, and fruits maturing in late summer or autumn.
This remarkable Black Ash tree is growing in Rufus King Park, a National Historic Landmark and Musuem in the east end of the New York City suburb of Jamaica. In the late 1700's, the property was the country home of Rufus King, a wealthy Manhattan businessman who was a New York representative to the committee to draft the United States Constitution. King also served as the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain for 12 years after the U.S. Consitution was adopted.
Although smaller than other ash species, the Black Ash was valued by native Americans to make splints for basket weaving. Baskets, barrel hoops and woven chair bottoms were also maade from thin, tough strips of split wood, which gave this ash its other names. The light-colored wood is soft, weak, inferior to other ashes, and of no value as timber.