| Ptelea trifoliata Hoptree |
|
|---|---|
| Common hoptree fruit | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Sapindales |
| Family: | Rutaceae |
| Subfamily: | Toddalioideae |
| Genus: | Ptelea L. |
| Species: | P. trifoliata |
| Binomial name | |
| Ptelea trifoliata L., 1753[1] |
|
The Hoptree or Common hoptree, Ptelea trifoliata in the Rutaceae family, is a deciduous shrub or small tree. [2] [3]. Also known as Wafer Ash, it is native to North America, from southern Eastern Canada, the Great Lakes region and the Northeastern U.S.; southward through the midwestern and southeastern U.S. to the southern state of Florida, westward to the Southwestern United States in Utah—Arizona, and southward through central and eastern Mexico to the southwestern state of Oaxaca. [2] A separate species, Ptelea crenulata or the California hoptree, is endemic to the state's central and northern regions. [4]
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Ptelea, of Greek derivation, is the classical name of the elm tree. Carl Linnaeus used that word for this genus because of the resemblance of its fruit to that of the elm. Trifoliata refers to the three-parted compound leaf.[5]
Ptelea trifoliata is the northernmost New World representative of the Rue (Citrus) family. [6]
While Ptelea trifoliata is most often treated as a single species with subspecies and/or varieties in different distribution ranges, some botanists treat the various Hoptrees as a group of four or more closely related species: [7]
Ptelea crenulata, the California hoptree, is a species endemic to the state and found in the western Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade Range foothills, the northern California Coast Ranges, and the San Francisco Bay Area. [8] [9] [10] It was formerly classified by some as P. trifoliata var. crenulata (P. crenulata—Greene).
The plant grows in chaparral and woodlands habitats. [10]. It is cultivated by specialty California native plant nurseries as an ornamental plant for use as a shrub or small tree in water conserving gardens, natural landscaping design, and habitat restoration projects. [11] [12]
Ptelea trifoliata is a small tree, or often a shrub of a few spreading stems, 6–8 m (20–26 ft) tall with a broad crown. The plant has thick fleshy roots, flourishes in rich, rather moist soil. In the Mississippi embayment (Mississippi River Valley) it is found most frequently on rocky slopes as part of the undergrowth. Its juices are acrid and bitter and the bark possesses tonic properties.[5]
The twigs are slender to moderately stout, brown with deep U-shaped leaf scars, and with short, light brown, fuzzy buds. The leaves are alternate, 5-18 cm long, palmately compound with three (rarely five) leaflets, each leaflet 1-10 cm long, sparsely serrated or entire, shiny dark green above, paler below. The western and southwestern forms have smaller leaves (5-11 cm) than the eastern forms (10-18 cm), an adaptation to the drier climates there.
The flowers are small, 1-2 cm across, with 4-5 narrow, greenish white petals, produced in terminal, branched clusters in spring: some find the odor unpleasant but to others trifoliata has a delicious scent. The fruit is a round wafer-like papery samara, 2-2.5 cm across, light brown, maturing in summer. Seed vessel has a thin wing and is held on tree until high winds during early winter.[5]
The bark is reddish brown to gray brown, short horizontal lenticels, warty corky ridges, becoming slightly scaly, unpleasant odor and bitter taste. It has several Native American uses as a seasoning and as an herbal medicine for different ailments. [13]