Sooty-black velvety buds in opposite pairs, the end bud shaped like a bishop's mitre
Ash — Fraxinus excelsior. The classic winter twig identification.
Nature · Trees
Ash
Deciduous · to 35 m · last into leaf, first out
Fraxinus excelsior — Oleaceae
The common or European ash is the airy, late-leafing tree of hedgerows, limestone dales and mixed woodland, casting light shade that lets a rich ground flora grow beneath. Its sooty-black buds are the single most reliable winter clue to any British tree. It is now in steep decline from ash dieback, caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus.
How to know it
How to spot them
- ▸Sooty black, velvety buds in opposite pairs, the terminal bud fat and bishop's-mitre shaped
- ▸Pinnate leaves in opposite pairs, with 7–13 stalkless leaflets and no bud at the tip in winter
- ▸Bunches of winged seeds ('ash keys') hanging in dense clusters, brown and persisting into winter
- ▸Pale grey bark, smooth when young, developing a neat criss-cross diamond pattern
- ▸Last tree into leaf in spring and among the first to drop; leaves usually fall green
How to know it
Pinnate leaves in opposite pairs with 7–13 stalkless leaflets, casting the light shade that lets bluebells and dog's mercury flourish
Ash. Rowan's pinnate leaves are alternate, not opposite.
Bunches of winged 'keys' hang brown through the winter after the leaves have fallen green
Ash — the samaras are called ash keys.
Yggdrasil, the Norse world tree, was said to be one of these, and Odin hung nine nights upon it
Ash.
Its springy, shock-absorbing timber made hockey sticks, tool handles, oars and the frame of the Morgan car
Ash.
Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, a fungus first found in Britain in 2012, is destroying it across the country
Ash dieback, formerly called chalara.
Last of the British broadleaves into leaf and among the first out, with paired leaf scars and a light, open crown
Ash.
Quick-fire facts
- •Fraxinus excelsior — excelsior means 'higher' or 'taller'
- •In the Oleaceae, the olive family — so ash is a relative of olive, privet, lilac and jasmine
- •Ash dieback (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus) was first confirmed in Britain in 2012; most ash trees are expected to be lost, though a minority show tolerance
- •Yggdrasil, the world tree of Norse myth, is usually described as an ash
- •Ash wood is strong and elastic: tool handles, hockey sticks, oars, snooker cues, and the ash frames of Morgan cars
- •It burns well even when green, hence the rhyme that ash wood is fit for a queen to burn
- •Ash is the only British tree with true black buds, making winter identification straightforward
- •The emerald ash borer, a beetle devastating North American ash, is a further threat if it reaches Britain
- •Old country lore reads the order of ash and oak leafing as a weather forecast: 'oak before ash, in for a splash'
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- Woodland Trust — Ash (Fraxinus excelsior)