Pronounciation: FRAX-i-nus GREG-gi-i

Hardiness zones
Sunset 11-24
USDA 7-11

Landscape Use: Large backgound shrub, screen, small multi-trunk tree for light shade, best used in mixed oasis landscapes for entryways, or eastern or northern exposures.

Form & Character: Upright, rounded and spreading, vase shaped, open, delicate, graceful, mesic in the midst of a dry place.

Growth Habit: Mostly evergreen, woody, broadleaf perennial shrub to small tree, slow to moderate growth rate to 20-feet tall with near equal spread.

Foliage/Texture: Leaves small, 2- to 3-inches long, odd-pinnately compound, 3 to 5 leaflets per leaf, leaflets narrow oblong, sometimes bluntly serrate, dark green when mature, branches and trunk a smooth grey; medium fine texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Flowers clustered, small and nearly inconspicuous, male parts appearing before female, avoiding self-pollination. Flowers have purple anthers and yellow maturing to brown stigma and ovaries with green sepals; fruits a winged achene.

Seasonal Color: None

Temperature Cold tolerant, but struggles in Phoenix when temperatures exceed 115^oF.

Light: Partial shade to full sun, limit direct exposure to full western exposures.

Soil: Tolerant of most soil types. Soil should be well drained.

Watering: In Phoenix, will require regular infrequent supplemental water, especially during summer.

Pruning: Occassionally train to shape. As a shrub, head back conservatively to encourage a dense canopy. As a multi-trunk small tree, elevate crown base as necesary to reveal its attractive smooth grey phellum (bark). In either case 'conservative' is the operative word for pruning little leaf ash.

Propagation: Stem cuttings, grafting, seed.

Disease and Pests:

Additional comments: Little leaf ash is seldom seen in Phoenix landscapes. Its open, medium-fine texture causes it to easily get visually "lost" in Phoenix 'Disney Desert' landscape settings with high amounts of color, form and/or textural contrast. It seems though that little leaf ash is currently being promoted and used by a few eclectic landscape architects in Phoenix who are seeking to create that "different natural landscape setting". It is better suited for Arizona landscapes at slightly higher elevations such as in Tucson, Prescott, Cottonwood, Sierra Vista, and Sedona. The cultivar 'Libby Davison' PP30666 from Civano Nursery in Tucson, Arizona is reported to be more heat and drought tolerant.

Taxonomic factoid: The specific epithet greggii was given by the American Botanical Society to 23 species of plants in honor of the naturalist, Josiah Gregg (1806-1850) who explored and described the flora of the American Southwest in his 1844, two-volume manuscript entitled "Commerce of the Prairies”.