Species
+

Ptelea trifoliata L.

American Hop Tree, Common Hoptree, Wafer Ash, hoptree

Climate known 63 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

Ptelea trifoliata, commonly known as common hoptree, wafer ash, stinking ash, and skunk bush, is a species of flowering plant in the citrus family (Rutaceae). It is native to North America, where it is found in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It is a deciduous shrub or tree, with alternate, trifoliate leaves.

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

About the genus · Ptelea

Ptelea is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. The name, of Greek derivation, is the classical name of the elm tree. Carl Linnaeus used that word for this genus because of the resemblance of its fruit to that of the elm. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Ptelea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Rutaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Ontario, Colorado, Illinois +43
Wild records
1610 in range· 453 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
933mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 107 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–41DLI
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 (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 933 mm a year, wettest June at 107 mm, driest January at 52 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -9.2 °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 Ptelea baldwinii Young; Ptelea trifoliata Boland; Ptelea trifoliata f. trifoliata; Ptelea trifoliata var. trifoliata.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November 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 (703 mm of 933 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 21.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

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 933 mm a year, wettest June at 107 mm, driest January at 52 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

933 mm a year at the habitat, 703 mm of it April to November. Wettest month June at 107 mm, driest January at 52 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 439 mm to 1313 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: 17 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 41 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 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

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 -9.2 °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 -9.2 °C, the absolute minimum -17.1 °C, about 86 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells -8.5 °C to 7.0 °C), warmest day 29.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.2 °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: 55 to 58% 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 9 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from -2 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 933 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1004 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -17.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.3 °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°50°frost41.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-17.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 17–41RH 55–58 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1004 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 °C9 / -1–1811 / 1–2016 / 6–2320 / 13–2725 / 19–3028 / 24–3230 / 25–3429 / 25–3426 / 22–3121 / 15–2715 / 8–229 / 2–18
Night °C-2 / -9–7-0 / -7–83 / -3–118 / 3–1513 / 9–1918 / 13–2320 / 14–2419 / 14–2416 / 12–2110 / 7–175 / 1–12-1 / -6–8
Rain mm52 / 18–9452 / 14–9566 / 12–11373 / 17–10999 / 17–129107 / 22–12997 / 54–13488 / 51–12286 / 47–11781 / 34–11272 / 16–10960 / 15–106
DLI19 / 12–2623 / 18–3229 / 26–4035 / 32–4738 / 37–5141 / 39–5241 / 38–4638 / 34–4232 / 27–3826 / 19–3320 / 12–2817 / 10–24
RH %58 / 49–6357 / 48–6156 / 45–5855 / 42–5857 / 41–6058 / 40–6058 / 48–6158 / 51–6157 / 48–6157 / 47–6058 / 48–6058 / 49–62

Each figure is the median across the 1004 grid cells holding the 1491 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 1087:1567 (35.625, -101.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.3 °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 1004 distinct grid cells holding the 1491 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1087:1567 (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 35.50_-101.875, lapse-corrected -81 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 959 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.
NativeOntario, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest· introduced: Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, France, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Uzbekistan, Québec
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker30.26, -97.865 · in the densest population, 464 records (29% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1610 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 453 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 89 km away. 228 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 119 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 of the 1610 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ptelea trifoliataPtelea trifoliataPtelea trifoliataPtelea trifoliataPtelea trifoliataPtelea trifoliataPtelea trifoliataPtelea trifoliata

Photographs: (c) Tyler Smith, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Nash Turley, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Dave Bishop, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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 Ptelea trifoliata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antibacterial and fungicidal activities of ethanol extracts of 38 species of plants
V. V. Zazharskyi, P. О. Davydenko, О. М. Кулішенко, І. В. Боровик (2020) · Biosystems Diversity
Suitability of native North American Rutaceae to serve as host plants for the Asian citrus psyllid (Hemiptera: Liviidae)
Mamoudou Sétamou, John V. da Graça, J. L. Sandoval (2016) · Journal of Applied Entomology
The Naturally Occurring Historical and Extant Flora of Central Park, New York City, New York 1857–2007
Robert DeCandido, Neil Calvanese, Regina V. Alvarez, Matt I. Brown (2007) · The Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society
A new larval erythraeidae (Acari) from Hungary
Alex Fain, G. Ripka (1998) · International Journal of Acarology
Establishment of Ptelea trifoliata on Lake Michigan Sand Dunes
Kenneth W. McLeod, Peter G. Murphy (1977) · The American Midland Naturalist
Antimicrobial agents from higher plants. The quaternary alkaloids of Ptelea trifoliata.
Mitscher La, Bathala Ms, Clark Gw, Béal Jl (1975) · PubMed
Flora of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
Janice E. Bowers (1980) · Journal of the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science
Cumarine und chinolin-alkaloide aus der wurzelrinde von Ptelea trifoliata
Johannes Reisch, J. Kőrösi, K. Szendrei, I. Novák (1975) · Phytochemistry
New Combinations in the Florida Flora
Daniel B. Ward (2001) · Novon A Journal for Botanical Nomenclature
Antibiotics from higher plants: pteleatinium chloride, a new quaternary quinoline alkaloid from Ptelea trifoliata with antitubercular and antiyeast activity
L. A. Mitscher, M. S. BATHALA, J.L. Beal (1971) · Journal of the Chemical Society D Chemical Communications
Quinoline alkaloids. Part 28. The biosynthesis of furoquinolines and other hemiterpenoids in Ptelea trifoliata
Charles F. Neville, M. F. Grundon, Venkataraman N. Ramachandran, Geisla Reisch (1991) · Journal of the Chemical Society Perkin Transactions 1

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.

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 136 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.