Ash

Where it grows

Common ash ranges across Europe from the Atlantic to the Caspian and from Scandinavia south to the northern Mediterranean. It thrives on alkaline soils over chalk and limestone, in damp valley woodlands, and as a hedgerow tree across Britain and Ireland.

How to recognise it

Ash is one of the last trees to leaf out in spring, with very distinctive black, velvety buds visible all winter against the smooth pale grey bark. The pinnate leaves carry 7 to 13 lance-shaped leaflets. The single-winged samaras (“ash keys”) hang in dense bunches through autumn and winter.

Uses

Ash heartwood is springy, tough, and shock-absorbent, the traditional wood for axe handles, hammer shafts, oars, hockey sticks, baseball bats (though Northern White Ash is the standard there), and the framework of the Morris Minor Traveller. The pale wood with darker heartwood streaks is also a popular figured cabinet timber.

Conservation

Ash dieback (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus), an Asian fungus spreading across Europe since 2006, is killing the great majority of native ash trees. Emerald ash borer has done similar damage to North American ashes. The species’ population trajectory is rapidly declining.