One of our most common and important broadleaved trees, valued for biodiversity, beauty and timber, now widely threatened by a deadly fungal disease, with a devastating pest also edging closer across mainland Europe. It usually grows on alkaline loams and rocky soils, tolerates some waterlogging but is not drought-resistant, and rapidly colonises forest openings, ride edges and arable field margins.
Native to most of north-western Europe except Portugal and Finland, and east through Russia, Turkey, the Balkans, Ukraine and Iran. Native to Britain and Ireland, widely distributed, absent only from small parts of the Scottish Highlands and the Flow Country.
Trioecious, with male, female and hermaphrodite flowers on separate trees (individuals can change sex over time). Wind-pollinated and wind-dispersed via winged samaras. Very effective at natural regeneration, with dense seedling carpets often appearing beneath mother trees.
Large (35m or more), often slender with a slightly sinuous trunk, though commonly coppiced and pollarded. The fairly open, lightly shading crown lets ground flora flourish, with silvery branches sweeping upward at the tips. Bark pale grey, smooth with cream-spotted lenticels, maturing brown with a ridged lattice. Twigs grey with cream lenticels; buds black, mitre-shaped, opposite. Leaves (20-30cm), compound pinnate with 9-11(13) oblong-lanceolate leaflets, dark green and glabrous above, paler with soft brown midrib down below, serrate, stalkless except the terminal leaflet. Flowers in dense panicles, petal-less, green with red-tipped parts. Fruit a samara ('keys') in dense clusters on female trees, symmetrical wing (40mm), often persisting over winter. Manna Ash differs: smooth bark, 5-9 leaflets. Green Ash differs: 7-9 glossy leaflets. Elder differs: green-brown pineapple-like buds, 5-7 uniformly toothed leaflets, distinctive smell when crushed.
Prefers fertile, well-drained soils, thriving on valley sides. It grows in mixed woodland but tolerates shade only when young (5-8 years), becoming strongly light-demanding by about 4m. Late-spring frost can kill the terminal bud, causing forking growth from the next lateral buds below; for timber, fork removal in the first metre or two and higher side-branch removal as the tree grows are usually necessary.
Some 955 taxa are associated with Common Ash, including 45 found on no other tree. It hosts many lichens adapted to its acidic bark (Sycamore is often a good alternative host). The distinctive black fungus King Alfred's Cake (Daldinia concentrica) often grows on its fallen branchwood. Old trees with deadwood attract woodpeckers, and their canopies are favoured rookery sites.
The main current threat is ash dieback, caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus: look for lens-shaped lesions on young stems and branches followed by leaf wilting; do not coppice if disease is present nearby. About 10 per cent of trees show some resistance. A possible future threat is the Emerald Ash Borer, already present in mainland Europe.
One of the most productive hardwoods in Britain and Ireland. Its strong, flexible timber was traditionally used where both qualities mattered, including pike shafts, wheel rims, cart axles and boat frames, and the same properties suited hockey and hurley sticks, billiard cues and tennis rackets, as well as small items like axe handles and tent pegs. It remains highly valued for prestige cabinetry and furniture.
