The life of an Ash tree
The English Ash, or Fraxinus excelsior, stands as one of Britain’s most familiar native trees, reaching heights of up to 40 metres. It’s easy to recognise with its domed crown and smooth pale-grey bark in youth that gradually develops deeper grooves with age and it can live for up to 300 years! Even in the colder months, Ash trees remain distinguishable by their smooth twigs capped with distinctive black, velvety buds, which are a signature trait that helps in winter identification.
CC Philip Halling / Ash tree buds
Before the leaves emerge in spring, you may notice clusters of small, purple male or female flowers appearing on the tips of twigs. These flowering clusters show up before leaf-out and are wind-pollinated.
As spring unfolds, its leaves unfurl, composed of between 9 and 13 pairs of oval leaflets arranged symmetrically along a central stem, with one single leaflet at the tip. Interestingly, the Ash is often one of the last trees to leaf out in spring and among the first to shed its foliage in autumn. It is not uncommon for its leaves to fall while still green.
By late summer and autumn, the female flowers give way to clusters of winged seeds known as keys, which hang from the branches in conspicuous bunches and spin as they fall. This visual makes them unmistakable even from a distance.
Ash in our landscape
Across the UK, Ash trees thrive in woodlands, hedgerows, parklands, gardens, riverbanks, and urban landscapes. It fares best in fertile, well-drained soils and is particularly common in damp, fertile northern and Welsh soils. Its capacity to tolerate air pollution has also made it a popular choice for landscaping and town planting.
The Ash tree also plays an essential ecological role. Its open canopy, light leaf fall, and early defoliation allow sunlight to reach the woodland floor, encouraging wildflowers like wild garlic and dog’s mercury to flourish beneath. The seeds act like spinning helicopters, providing winter food for bullfinches, while older, hollowing trees serve as nesting sites for woodpeckers, owls, redstarts, and nuthatches.
Many insects, including caterpillars species such as the coronet, brick, and centre-barred sallow moths, feed on Ash leaves. Its bark supports a rich community of lichens and mosses, and the decaying wood is vital for rare deadwood specialists like the lesser stag beetle.
Uses for Ash
Humans, too, have long relied on Ash for its remarkable wood. Tough, flexible, and shock-resistant, Ash became a go-to material for tool handles, sports equipment like oars, hockey sticks, tennis rackets, and snooker cues, and even early aircraft frames. The Morgan Motor Company famously still uses Ash to craft car bodies, a nod to tradition and the material’s enduring strength. Green ash seeds known as immature keys were once considered edible, while the bark and sap found roles in herbal medicine, treating ailments such as fevers, gout, and earaches in folk traditions.
In rural Britain, Ash was often harvested on a roughly 10-year coppice cycle, supplying sustainable timber for local needs while living trees continued to thrive. Some ancient specimens have persisted for centuries. The Glen Lyon Ash is estimated to be between 400 to 500 years old with a diameter of around six metres.
Sadly, the Ash tree’s future is under threat from Ash dieback, caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus. The disease causes leaf loss, crown dieback, and eventual death of affected trees, and experts warn that staggering proportions of Ash trees in Britain could be lost in the coming decades.
Yet the story of the English Ash is not purely one of decline. It stretches from the ancient myths in which Norse tradition the great world tree Yggdrasil was an Ash tree to its presence in our hedgerows, parks, and folklore. Its critical role in wildlife, crafts, medicine, and industry gives many hope that a cure will be found and the Ash tree will continue to decorate our countrysides for centuries to come.