Maries' Ash

Trees 5-8 m. Branchlets and leaf rachis puberulent and scurfy hairy; buds ovoid, yellowish tomentose, becoming black. Leaves 7-15 cm; petiole purple, 2-3 cm, puberulent; leaflets 3-5(-7), sessile or with petiolule ca. 5 mm; leaflet blade ovate to lanceolate, 2.5-8 × 1.5-4.5 cm (terminal one largest), papery to thin leathery, glabrous or densely white pubescent along midrib abaxially, base blunt or attenuate, margin entire or serrate over middle, apex acute or acuminate; primary veins 7-10 on each side of midrib. Panicles terminal or lateral, 7-12 cm, many flowered, congested. Flowers polygamous, appearing after leaves. Staminate flowers: calyx inconspicuous; corolla white to yellowish, lobes linear-lanceolate, 3-5 mm, acute. Bisexual flowers with shorter corolla lobes. Samara purple, linear or linear-spatulate, ca. 2.5 cm × 4 mm, usually red glandular dotted and scurfy hairy; wing decurrent to middle of nutlet, apex rounded or retuse. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Sep.

Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang [Japan]

Woods on slopes and by streams in ravines; 500-1200 m.

Fraxinus mariesii J. D. Hooker.

Fraxinus sieboldiana, the Chinese flowering ash or Japanese flowering ash, is a species of flowering plant in the family Oleaceae. It is native to southeastern China, the Korean peninsula, and Japan. It grows on wooded slopes and by streams. It is hardy to USDA zone 6. A variegated cultivar, 'Rising Sun', is available.