15 Graines Frêne à fleurs, Orne, Fraxinus ornus

Flower ash, Orne, Fraxinus Ornus |

The flower ash or Orne (Fraxinus Ornus), sometimes called Magana ash, or Orne ash, more rarely Orne from Europe, is a tree of the Oléaceae family. Other common names : Awesome in manna, Orne à Manne, Thigh Orne, Orne from Europe.

15 Seeds - cold stratification 3/4 months before sowing - sowing at 16/18 ° C

Flower ash is a small tree (7 to 10 meters high) from southern Europe. Son Bark Grisish and Smooth distinguishes it from its " Cousin " Mediterranean, Oxyphyllian ash (Fraxinus Angustifolia). It has leaves composed 20 to 30 cm long with 5 to 9 Leaflets 5 to 10 cm long and 2 to 4 cm wide, on a finely serrated and wavy edge , and petioles 5-15 mm long. The buds are ash. The flowering period extends from April to June. Its Flowering Odorant white which appears at the same time as the leaves gives it remarkable beauty in the spring. The flowers with four thin petals cream white 5-6 mm long are produced in dense Panicles 10-20 cm long in the middle of spring.

• Remedy: a sugar is extracted from the Sève by cutting in the bark. In Middle Ages, this syrup was compared to the Manna hence its nickname " Awestern ash ". In pharmacology, the chemist Nicolas Lémery wrote in XVII^e century, about this exsudat of ash trees that grow in Calabria and Sicily: " The windfall gently purges bilious and serery moods, it is used to evacuate the pituite from the brain ” (Chymie Cours). "Here is his blackcurrant which purges like manna" writes Balzac in Father Goriot.

The main constituent of the windfall is a Polyol, D-Mannitol which represents 40 to 60 % by weight of the exudat. Currently, in phytotherapy The windfall is used as Cathartic (Purgative) and Diuretics2.

• Ornamental culture: It is often cultivated as an ornamental tree in Europe for its decorative flowers. Some Cultivars are grafted on Fraxinus Excelsior, often with a very visible change in the bark at the level of transplant.

Contents subject to the CC-BY-SA license 3.0. Source : Article Fraxinus Ornus by Wikipedia in French (Authors)