Ptelea trifoliata

The common hoptree or wafer ash is in the citrus or Rutaceae family and is native to Eastern North America, including Canada, Mexico and the United States. It is a shrub or small tree up to 6 m tall.

• Leaves are alternate and compound, with 3 leaflets (trifoliate), each being oblong-elliptical, 6–10 cm long, entire or serrate, bright green, upper side is glabrous, underside greyish, glabrous or with pubescent veins, gradually pointed at the apex; petiole is 2.5–3 cm long; leaves turn a rusty yellow in the fall.
• Flowers are greenish white, small, 1–2 cm across, with 4–5 narrow, greenish-white petals, grouped in 4–8 cm wide corymbs.
• Fruit is round wafer-like papery samara, 2–2.5 cm in diameter, light brown and 2-seeded, lightly emarginate (knotched) at the apex, ripening in October.
• Branchlets are dark reddish brown, shining, covered with small excrescences; twigs are slender to moderately stout, brown with deep U-shaped leaf scars; buds are short, light brown, fuzzy.