What is "fraxinus ornus"

Manna \Man"na\ (m[a^]n"n[.a]), n. [L., fr. Gr. ma`nna, Heb. m[=a]n; cf. Ar. mann, properly, gift (of heaven).]

1. (Script.) The food supplied to the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness of Arabia; hence, divinely supplied food.
   --Ex. xvi. 15.

2. (Bot.) A name given to lichens of the genus Lecanora, sometimes blown into heaps in the deserts of Arabia and Africa, and gathered and used as food; called also manna lichen.

3. (Bot. & Med.) A sweetish exudation in the form of pale yellow friable flakes, coming from several trees and shrubs and used in medicine as a gentle laxative, as the secretion of Fraxinus Ornus, and Fraxinus rotundifolia, the manna ashes of Southern Europe.

   Note: Persian manna is the secretion of the camel's thorn (see Camel's thorn, under Camel); Tamarisk manna, that of the Tamarisk mannifera, a shrub of Western Asia; Australian, manna, that of certain species of eucalyptus; Brian[,c]on manna, that of the European larch.

   Manna insect (Zo["o]l), a scale insect ( Gossyparia mannipara), which causes the exudation of manna from the Tamarix tree in Arabia.

manna ash \manna ash\ n. (Bot.), A South Mediterranean ash ( Fraxinus ornus) having fragrant white flowers in dense panicles and yielding manna.

Syn: flowering ash, Fraxinus ornus.

mannitol \man"ni*tol\, n. [Mannite + -ol.]

1. (Chem.) A white crystalline hexose ( HO.CH

2. (CHOH)4.CH2.OH) of a sweet taste obtained from a so-called manna, the dried sap of the flowering ash ( Fraxinus ornus); -- called also mannite, and hydroxy hexane. Cf. Dulcite. It is used in pharmacy as excipient and diluent for solids and liquids. It is also used as a food additive for anti-caking properties, or as a sweetener, and, illegally, to "cut" (dilute) illegal drugs such as cocaine or heroin.

   Syn: D-mannitol; manna sugar; cordycepic acid; Diosmol; Mannicol; Mannidex; Osmiktrol; Osmosal.

Fraxinus ornus (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, Poland and the Czech Republic, and east through the Balkans, Turkey, and western Syria to Lebanon and Armenia.