Species
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Fraxinus ornus L.

Manna Ash, South European Flowering Ash, flowering ash

Climate known 77 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Fraxinus ornus, the manna ash or South European flowering ash, is a species of Fraxinus native to Southern Europe and Southwestern Asia, from Spain and Italy north to Austria and the Czech Republic, and east through the Balkans, Turkey, and western Syria to Lebanon and Armenia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Fraxinus ornus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Fraxinus

Fraxinus, commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous, although some subtropical species are evergreen. The genus is widespread throughout much of Europe, Asia, and North America.

Text from Wikipedia, “Fraxinus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Oleaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary +15
Wild records
1172 in range· 823 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jul, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
912mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 111 mm (CHELSA)
Light
9–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to June and September to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 912 mm a year, wettest October at 111 mm, driest July at 43 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Fraxinus montana Salisb.; Fraxinus thyrsantha St.-Lag., 1880; Ornus europaea Pers.; Ornus ornus (L.) H.Karst.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to June and September to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (690 mm of 912 mm) takes 8 months, March to June and September to December. Mean temperature moves 18.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to June and September to December.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 912 mm a year, wettest October at 111 mm, driest July at 43 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

912 mm a year at the habitat, 690 mm of it March to June and September to December. Wettest month October at 111 mm, driest July at 43 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 613 mm to 1431 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -4.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -4.1 °C, the absolute minimum -11.5 °C, about 44 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -5.3 °C to 5.3 °C), warmest day 26.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 7 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul; mean night from 0 °C in Jan to 17 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 912 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 952 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -11.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost31.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-11.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 9–43RH 56–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 952 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C7 / 2–118 / 4–1212 / 8–1415 / 12–1720 / 16–2223 / 20–2626 / 23–2926 / 22–2922 / 18–2517 / 14–2012 / 8–158 / 3–12
Night °C0 / -5–50 / -5–63 / -1–76 / 3–1010 / 7–1414 / 11–1717 / 13–2017 / 13–2114 / 10–1810 / 6–145 / 1–101 / -4–7
Rain mm64 / 37–11656 / 35–9865 / 40–10783 / 49–12776 / 50–12867 / 27–12743 / 11–10959 / 21–12090 / 53–144111 / 51–175107 / 55–18391 / 49–158
DLI11 / 8–1517 / 14–2125 / 21–3032 / 29–3738 / 34–4242 / 36–4643 / 37–4737 / 32–4127 / 23–3118 / 15–2312 / 9–169 / 7–13
RH %62 / 57–6660 / 57–6359 / 55–6159 / 55–6158 / 55–6157 / 54–6156 / 52–6057 / 54–6159 / 57–6262 / 59–6463 / 59–6663 / 58–67

Each figure is the median across the 952 grid cells holding the 1164 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 908:3779 (44.575, 8.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -11.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 952 distinct grid cells holding the 1164 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 908:3779 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 44.50_8.750, lapse-corrected +122 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 512 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Switzerland, Corse, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Transcaucasus, Lebanon-Syria, Turkey· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, France, Portugal, Argentina Northeast
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker42.383, 9.382 · in the densest population, 608 records (52% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1172 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 823 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 34 km away. 433 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 8 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1172 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Fraxinus ornusFraxinus ornusFraxinus ornusFraxinus ornusFraxinus ornusFraxinus ornusFraxinus ornusFraxinus ornus

Photographs: (c) Ioannis Magouras, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Todd Boland, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Fraxinus ornus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Identification, measurement and interpretation of tree rings in woody species from mediterranean climates
Paolo Cherubini, Barbara L. Gartner, Roberto Tognetti, O. U. Bräker (2003) · Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Late quaternary vegetation and climate of southwestern Turkey
W. van Zeist, H.E.S. Woldring, D. Stapert (2016) · Palaeohistoria
Chloroplast DNA phylogeography of European ashes,Fraxinussp. (Oleaceae): roles of hybridization and life history traits
Myriam Heuertz, S Carnevale, Silvia Fineschi, Federico Sebastiani (2006) · Molecular Ecology
Elucidation of the genetic architecture of self‐incompatibility in olive: Evolutionary consequences and perspectives for orchard management
Pierre Saumitou‐Laprade, Philippe Vernet, Xavier Vekemans, Sylvain Billiard (2017) · Evolutionary Applications
Combined histochemistry and autofluorescence for identifying lignin distribution in cell walls
Veronica De Micco, Giovanna Aronne (2007) · Biotechnic & Histochemistry
Changes with maturity in fibre composition and levels of extractable polyphenols in Greek browse: Effects on in vitro gas production and in sacco dry matter degradation
K. Khazaal, X. Markantonatos, A. S. Nastis, E. R. Ørskov (1993) · Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
Water ‘on the rocks’: a summer drink for thirsty trees?
Andrea Nardini, Francesco Petruzzellis, Daniel Marusig, Martina Tomasella (2020) · New Phytologist

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Fraxinus 9 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 128 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.