It was Carl Linnaeus, the king of binomial nomenclature, who decided to use the classical Latin name fraxinus as the genus for ash trees. One hundred years later the American botanist John Torrey gave the species name velutina to the tree I’m talking about in this episode; Fraxinus velutina or velvet ash. There are sixty-five to seventy species of Fraxinus found around the world. Seven of those species are found in Arizona, so hey, collect them all! The photos are mine of velvet ash along our driveway and in fall color.