Fraxinus-angustifolia_5

Description:

Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl, syn(?).: Fraxinus oxycarpa Willd., Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. pannonica (Fuk.) Soo & Simon, Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. oxycarpa (Brieb. ex Willd) Franco & RochaEN: Narrow-leaved ash, DE: Sdliche EscheSlo.: poljski jesen, ozkolistni jesen, ostroplodni jesen (?)Dat.: May 24. 2012Lat.: 45.45226 Long.: 13.90704Code: Bot_621/2012_IMG9405Habitat: humid grassland with some bushes and solitary trees, flat terrain, open place, full sun, elevation 120 m (390 feet); average precipitations 1.200-1.300 mm/year, average temperature 11-12 deg C, Sub-Mediterranean phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil.Place: Southeast of village Marii, about 300 m away of Slovenia-Croatia state border, North Istria, Primorska, Slovenia EC. Comment: Narrow-leafed ash (Fraxinus angustifoila) is far the rarest among the three autochthonous species of this genus growing in Slovenia. While common ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and Manna ash or South European flowering ash (Fraxinus ornus) can be found almost everywhere in the country, Fraxinus angustifoila is seldom encountered. Fraxinus angustifoila is ecologically and morphologically very variable species. As a result, its taxonomy is 'complex'. Authors treat it very differently. Several varieties and subspecies (sometimes treated on species level) have been described but hardly agreed upon by all. Fraxinus angustifoila in broader sense is divided most coarsely into two subspecies Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. angustifolia and Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. oxycarpa = Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. pannonica. The former one grows in west Europe, mainly in Spain and along Mediterranean Sea coast including North Africa coast, the latter one grows more east in a separate region in Pannonian flats. Its distribution in Slovenia is similarly bipartite (Ref.3). The plants growing on plains and marshes of northwest Slovenia (a part of Pannonian flats) had been long time considered as Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. oxycarpa while those growing in west and Sub-Mediterranean region of the country have been considered as Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. angustifolia. However, latest extensive morphometric studies proved that there are little if any differences between both and that all trees in Slovenia probably belong to Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. oxycarpa (Ref.2). If this holds, this observation should be more properly named Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. oxycarpa. The tree photographed was growing solitary.Ref.:(1) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 503. (2) R. Brus, Drevesne vrste na Slovenskem (Tree species in Slovenia) (in Slovene), samozaloba (2012), p 370.(3) N. Jogan (ed.), Gradivo za Atlas flore Slovenije (Materials for the Atlas of Flora of Slovenia), CKSF (2001), p 165.(4) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 2., Haupt (2004), p 182.