Fraxinus lanuginosa

Japanese ash is in the olive or Oleaceae family and is native to Japan and to the Primorye region (close to Hokkaido) of eastern Russia. It is a medium-sized deciduous tree, reaching up to 15 m in height.

It is closely related to the European flowering ash (Fraxinus ornus) from Europe and southwest Asia.

• Bark is smooth, dark grey; buds are pale pinkish-brown to grey-brown, with a dense covering of short grey hairs.
• Leaves are opposite, pinnately compound, each leaf is 10–15 cm long, with 5–7 leaflets, each ovate to oblong and measuring 4–9 cm long and 2–4 cm broad, with a finely toothed margin, downy at the base on the underside; petioles are short, indistinct.
• Flowers are polygamous (some flowers with stamens only, some with pistils only, and some with both, on the same or different plants), produced in panicles after the new leaves appear in late spring, each flower with four slender creamy white petals 5–7 mm long.
• Fruit is a slender samara 2–4 cm long and 3–5 cm broad, reddish, ripening brown, hanging in clusters.