Wafer ash leaflets

On October 16th, as part of the annual Native Plant Society of Texas symposium, I went on a field trip to a normally-closed-to-the-public section of the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. While walking through a dry creek bed there (we’d been in a drought again), I stopped to photograph this backlit compound leaf of Ptelea trifoliata, known as a wafer ash or hop tree. The ash in the common name wafer ash comes from the fact that the leaves are similar to those of some ash trees, but this tree is in the citrus family, Rutaceae. Today marks the first time the species has appeared here.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman