Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: A pause for appreciation before they go: Fraxinus, 1 by ViburnumValley

ViburnumValley wrote:
I sometimes forget that most of you are not from KY.

Bob:

Beaver Creek Nursery grows/sells Fraxinus quadrangulata.

By document, I mean attempt to record "...a day in the life of..." type information about what the species is/does/means to the landscape. For me, it's the pictures above. I drive rural lanes to the interstate, and then highways to Louisville where I work for the parks. These rural lanes pass through agricultural lands (mainly thoroughbred horse farms; yeah, my life is extremely difficult but someone has to do it). Here ash grows in mixed adventitious fence rows and in pastures as the big old patriarchs from times of yore. The interstate cuts a swift swath through similar landscapes but observed at much higher speeds. Finally, the parks in Louisville run the gamut from small urban blocks of designed tree stands to many thousand acres of forested lands.

In each of these situations, as well as the neighborhoods of Louisville and Lexington, the various ash species each perform a role, fill a niche, and pass through their seasons. This may be one of the first times that humans have seen a harbinger of doom for a plant coming and have the time to take account of what no longer may be.

E-guy:

Those would be an allée of the ubiquitous Quercus palustris, pin oak, that somehow became the landmark tree for central KY when one horse farm lined its drives with that species sometime back in the '20s. Transplants easy; grows fast; decent fall color; and then all succumb simultaneously to Xyllela fastidiosa (bacterial leaf scorch) when they reach chronological senescence. Funny: a colorful tree to be sure, but the shortest lived of all the trees that could have been chosen.

Same as subdivisions full of Callery pears, honeylocusts, and this century's most likely to crash at once -- red maples and lacebark elms.

No, I'm not bitter.