Plant · P-1026

Wafer Ash

Ptelea trifoliata

Wafer Ash is a small deciduous understory tree or tall shrub native to woodland edges, stream banks and rocky slopes across much of the eastern and central United States. Clusters of small greenish-white flowers open in late spring with a sweet scent that draws butterflies and other pollinators, followed by distinctive papery, wafer-shaped winged fruit that ripens yellow-brown by late summer and persists into winter. It tolerates a wide range of light from full sun to full shade and soil from sand to clay, grows slowly to about twenty feet, and serves as a larval host plant for swallowtail butterflies.