Description ³

Ptelea trifoliata is a small tree, or often a shrub of a few spreading stems, growing to around 6–8 m (20–26 ft) tall with a broad crown.. The bark is reddish brown to gray brown, with short horizontal lenticels (warty corky ridges), becoming slightly scaly, The plant has an unpleasant odor and bitter taste. Branchlets are dark reddish brown, shining, covered with small excrescences. The twigs are slender to moderately stout, brown with deep U-shaped leaf scars, and with short, light brown, fuzzy buds. It has thick fleshy roots.

Its leaves are alternate, compound, tripartite, and dotted with oil glands. The leaflets are sessile, ovate or oblong, 3–5 in (7.6–12.7 cm) long by 2–3 in (5.1–7.6 cm) broad, pointed at the base, entire or serrate, and gradially pointed at the apex. They are feather-veined, with midrib and primary veins prominent. They come out of the bud conduplicate and very downy. When fully grown the leaves are dark green, shiny above and paler green beneath. In autumn they turn a rusty yellow. The petioles are stout, 2 ½ to 3 inches long, with an enlarged base. Stipules are absent. The western and southwestern forms have smaller leaves (5–11 cm) than the eastern forms (10–18 cm), an adaptation to the drier climates there.

The flowers are small, 1–2 cm across, with 4–5 narrow, greenish white petals. The pedicels are downy. The 4- or 5-part calyx is downy and imbricate in bud. The corolla has four or five petals which are white, downy, spreading, hypogynous, and imbricate in bud. The five stamens alternate with the petals. The pistillate flowers bear rudimentary anthers. The filaments are awl-shaped and more-or-less hairy. The anthers are ovate or cordate, two-celled, with cells opening longitudinally. The ovaries are superior, hairy, abortive in the staminate flowers, two to three-celled. The style is short, the stigma 2- or 3-lobed, with two ovules per cell. Fertile and sterile flowers are produced together in terminal, spreading, compound cymes - the sterile being usually fewer, and falling after the anther cells mature.

Flowers are produced in May and June. Some find the odor unpleasant but to others the plant has a delicious scent.

The fruit is a round wafer-like papery samara, 2–2.5 cm across, light brown, and two-seeded. The fruit ripens in October, and is held on tree until high winds during early winter.

Its wood is yellow brown; heavy, hard, close-grained, satiny. Sp. gr., 0.8319; weight of cu. ft., 51.84 lbs.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Bob O'Kennon, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Bob O'Kennon
2. (c) arebee, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by arebee
3. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptelea_trifoliata

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• eFloras.org
• Flora of North America (beta)
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• Go Botany
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• Maryland Biodiversity Project
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• NBN Atlas
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• Tropicos
• USDA PLANTS database
• VASCAN by Canadensys
• World Flora Online

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