Red Ash

Description

Alphitonia excelsa, commonly known as the red ash or soap tree, is a species of tree in the family Rhamnaceae. It is endemic to Australia, being found in New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory and the northeastern tip of Western Australia. It is used in bush regeneration as a pioneer species and for amenity planting. This tree reaches a height of 7–25 metres (23–82 ft), by 5–10 metres (16–33 ft) across. The Red Ash has a spreading shade-producing habit when a larger tree with an overall greyish green appearance. The alternate leaves measure 5–14 cm (2–5.5 in) in length and 2–5 cm (1–2 in) wide and are dark glossy green above and silvery with fine hairs underneath, making an attractive contrast on windy days. The trunk and larger branches bear fissured grey bark, while smaller branches have smoother grey or white bark. It bears small greenish white flowers in late autumn and early winter, followed by globular dark fruit around 1.5 cm (0.59 in) in diameter, which contain two seeds. When young shoots are bruised, they give off a typical odour of sarsaparilla.The flowers are fragrant in the evening. It grows in eucalypt forests, eucalypt and acacia savannas, gallery forests and rainforests of NSW from Mount Gulaga (previously known as Mount Dromedary) northwards along the coast and inland to the Pilliga scrub, though Queensland and the Northern Territory and into the northwest of Western Australia. Inland forms can be stunted in appearance. It prefers sandy soils. Alphitonia is a genus of arborescent flowering plants comprising about 20 species, constituting part of the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae). They occur in tropical regions of Southeast Asia, Oceania and Polynesia. These are large trees or shrubs. In Australia, they are often called "ash trees" or "sarsaparilla trees". This is rather misleading however; among the flowering plants, Alphitonia is not closely related to the true ash trees (Fraxinus of the asterids), and barely at all to the monocot sarsaparilla vines (Smilax). The name is derived from Greek álphiton (ἄλφιτον, "barley-meal"), from the mealy quality of their fruits' mesocarps. Another interpretation is that "baked barley meal" alludes to the mealy red covering around the hard cells in the fruit.