Identifying Opposite Pinnate Leaves

Not many species have opposite pinnate leaves, but they can nevertheless be a little confusing.

If the leaf has more than seven leaflets, it is almost certainly an ash. Ashes have black or grey felty buds and their fruit are bunches of single keys. Elder, whose leaves are rather similar, but with usually five to seven leaflets, has white flower-heads which give rise to heads of black berries, and has purplish, rather spiky buds.

Some of the maples have pinnate leaves, but usually with only three to five leaflets. Most common are the highly variable Box Elder with irregularly-lobed leaves and pale buds, and Paper-bark Maple with distinctive bark.

 
 

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Copyright © 2007 Philip Brassett