Fraxinus velutinaTorr.

Arizona AshVelvet Ashvelvet ash

WFO wfo-0000833017 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Fraxinus velutina, photographed by Roger Rittmaster
fig. a Roger Rittmaster, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-03-28 / obs. 185217326
Fraxinus velutina, photographed by Sue Carnahan
fig. b Sue Carnahan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 106988087
Fraxinus velutina, photographed by Tom Field
fig. c Tom Field, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 106404637
Fraxinus velutina, photographed by Dario Taraborelli
fig. d Dario Taraborelli, CC0 1.0 / obs. 98956950
Fraxinus velutina, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. e Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 96780195
Fraxinus velutina, photographed by Andrew Tree
fig. f Andrew Tree, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 84946474
Fraxinus velutina, photographed by CK2AZ
fig. g CK2AZ, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 76763928
Fraxinus velutina, photographed by CK2AZ
fig. h CK2AZ, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 67779059

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 11 botanical countries

Regions where Fraxinus velutina is native: Arizona, California, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah ArizonaCaliforniaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastNevadaNew MexicoTexasUtah
Native distribution of Fraxinus velutina, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Arizona ARI NORTHERN AMERICA
California CAL
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
Texas TEX
Utah UTA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,576 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -4.2 °C 2.1 °C 6.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.6 °C 34.4 °C 38.8 °C
Annual rainfall 128 mm 407 mm 628 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 9 mm 30 mm 66 mm

It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,576 research-grade observations of Fraxinus velutina that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 17 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Fraxinus americana var. coriacea (S.Watson) Wenz.
  • Fraxinus americana var. pistaciifolia (Torr.) Wenz.
  • Fraxinus attenuata M.E.Jones
  • Fraxinus coriacea S.Watson
  • Fraxinus pennsylvanica subsp. velutina (Torr.) G.S.Mill.
  • Fraxinus pistaciifolia Torr.
  • Fraxinus pistaciifolia var. coriacea (S.Watson) A.Gray
  • Fraxinus pistaciifolia var. velutina (Torr.) Sudw.
  • Fraxinus standleyi Rehder
  • Fraxinus standleyi var. lasia Rehder
  • Fraxinus toumeyi Britton
  • Fraxinus velutina var. coriacea (S.Watson) Rehder
  • Fraxinus velutina var. glabra Rehder
  • Fraxinus velutina var. glabrata Lingelsh.
  • Fraxinus velutina var. toumeyi (Britton) Rehder
  • Fraxinus velutina var. typica Lingelsh.
  • Fraxinus velutina var. velutina

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.