Ptelea trifoliata L.

Hoptree; Wafer Ash

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Wafer Ash is a native deciduous shrub or small tree in the Citrus family (Rutaceae). It can be found throughout Alabama. Wafer Ash grows on creek banks, in open woods, on glades, on rock outcrops, and in prairies. Stems are erect, 3-25 feet in height, and branched. Young stems are green and glabrous while the trunk and older branches have gray-brown and scaly bark. The leaves are petiolate, alternate, and ternately compound. The leaflets are elliptic to ovate in outline, glabrous or pubescent, with crenate to entire margins. The leave turn yellow before falling in the autumn. Wafer Ash is monoecious, often producing male, female, and perfect flowers on the same shrub. Flowers are produced in terminal compound corymbs. Individual flowers have 3-5 greenish yellow sepals and petals. The fruit is a 2-seeded circular samara. The leaves and twigs of Wafer Ash have a musky/citrus odor when crushed. It is the larval food plant for the Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes). The bitter fruit have been used as a substitute for hops in the beer making process. Wafer Ash is sometimes cultivated as a street or patio tree. Several cultivars are available from nurseries.—A. Diamond.

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Native FAC (NWPL)

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