Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Cimmaron Ash

“We are getting to the point in the spring when more of the trees have leafed out than not,” says Sarah Low, executive director of the Tacoma Tree Foundation. “This week, I recommend checking out the especially lovely canopy of a particular cimmaron ash at Seventh and St. Helens Avenue near Market Street in downtown Tacoma. Cimmaron ash, known in the horticultural world as Fraxinus pennsylvanica “Cimmzam,” has a name fit for a 1990s rock band, which is perhaps why it has completely won me over. I just love this tree. The truth is I think it is one of the most aesthetically attractive individual trees I have ever encountered. The canopy is packed full of compound leaves and it creates a wonderful effect when the light shines through it. As a student of botany, I didn’t appreciate ash trees in general. They seemed unremarkable and hard to call to mind. I have since come to realize that they are extraordinary trees that have quietly shaded our streets, housed our favorite songbirds and butterflies, absorbed our pollutants, and filled much of the canopy of our urban forests across the country. In other words, they trees worth celebrating.”

Cimmaron ash rocks this week’s Tree-dimensional Tacoma, Peaks & Pints’ weekly Tacoma tree column. Inspired by our house beer, Kulshan Brewing Tree-dimensional IPA, Peaks & Pints branches out for a weekly look at terrific trees of Tacoma, in conjunction with our friends at Tacoma Tree Foundation.

Cimmaron is seedless, has excellent summer foliage and surprising rusty red fall tints. Narrow when young, its upright branches form an oval canopy that can reach 50-feet high.

Check out the cimmaron ash in downtown Tacoma, then head over for a growler fill of Tree-dimensional IPA (6.8%) at Peaks & Pints. Kulshan Brewing collaborated with the Tacoma craft beer lodge on their house beer. Paying homage to the outdoor enthusiasts who join Peaks daily in Tacoma’s Proctor District, Tree-dimensional IPA is the perfect beer to toast the powder, currents or trails, as well as reveal the sprains. Tree-dimensional IPA, or Tree-D, continues Peaks & Pints’ love affair with old school piney IPAs, this time brewed with Simcoe, Idaho 7, CTZ, Centennial, and whole leaf Cascade in the hop back for all the pine, a little citrus, with a creamy mouthfeel and bitter finish.

Tacoma Tree Foundation is dedicated to educating, empowering, and supporting community members in neighborhood-based greening. In other words, the Tacoma organization strives for a greener, healthier, more connected Tacoma — which plants well with Peaks and Pints. We will host TTF fundraisers during Tree-dimensional IPA’s reign as our house beer, which pours through October 2020.

LINK: Kulshan brews Peaks and Pints Tree-dimensional IPA

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Sugar Maple

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Tulip Poplar

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Giant Sequoia

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Pin Oak

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Douglas Fir

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Incense Cedar

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Plume Sawara Cypress

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Western Red Cedar

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: Ponderosa lemon hybrid

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: London planetrees

LINK: Tree-dimensional Tacoma: “Vanderwolf’s Pyramid” limber pine