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• Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh.

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At the bottom of our Garden, just where you might expect to find pots of gold, is the North American Rich Deciduous Woodland. Below the lowest roadway, on the northern side of the Garden, as you descend from the Visitors Centre.

The Mount Tomah Botanic Garden is designed for walking and is best seen this way, so maybe you have your heart set on enjoying the stroll down there and your head says, “Steady on!” at the thought of the return ascent? Our People Mover, designed to assist “return trip challenged” visitors, stops at the Northern Pavilion and the Brunet Pavilion [both marked on the guide map] at 11am, 1pm, 2pm and 3.45pm, and will return these valued customers to the Visitor Centre.

Ash trees featured this week, were grown from seed collected at Hadley in Hampshire County in the State of Massachusetts, USA. Received by the Royal Botanic Gardens in 1983, the resulting trees were planted in 1985.

A “non-hairy” form of Fraxinus pennsylvanica has in the past been referred to as variety subintegerrima or variety lanceolata and given the common name ‘Green Ash’. At that time, ‘Red Ash’ was the common name used for the most widespread form known simply as Fraxinus pennsylvanica. Most American botanists do not distinguish the two forms today, leaving the common names inter-changeable.

Down-slope of the ashes, the red and yellow foliage of two Sugar Maples, Acer saccharum, brighten the glade. To the east the beautiful Black Tupelo, Nyssa sylvatica, commences a vibrant display which will delight us long after the ash leaves have fallen. There are many other Fraxinus species to be found in the Garden. So, if the featured plants leaves are gone, look out for some of the others which are showing their colour such as the Golden Ash in the Car Park; in the Formal Garden or below the Brunet Pavilion.

Jan Allen
Garden Information Officer