Fraxinus biltmoreana Beadle

The status of the Biltmore ash is controversial. By some botanists it has been considered to be no more than a downy form of F. americana, but Miss Miller in her monograph accepts it as a species and suggests that it may be the result of hybridisation between F. americana and F. pennsylvanica (op. cit., pp. 22-24 and 41-43). The tree at Kew described under F. biltmoreana in previous editions no longer exists, but there is another in the Ash collection, received from the Arnold Arboretum in 1902. This is a very slender-crowned tree, measuring 70 × 5 ft (1969). It has the following characters, which agree well with those of the Biltmore ash as defined by Miss Miller: young twigs grey-brown, downy; terminal buds ovoid with apiculate tips; leaves with seven to nine stalked, entire leaflets, downy and very white beneath; rachis downy. Fruits not seen and probably not borne by this tree. They are described as having terminal wings (i.e., the wing not extending as a rim along the body of the fruits).