Tree of the month: April 2023 - Ash

Ash is a fast-growing, native tree, quick to colonise woodland and openground. Ash is the UK’s third most common species after Oak and Birch and makes up 13% of our broadleaved woodlands. In some areas Ash is the dominant tree species. The flexible wood has many uses, and, though no species is dependent on Ash, many birds and insects benefit from it. Sadly an estimated 6 out of 7 Ash trees could succumb to the devastating disease of Ash die-back.

Throughout winter, the big black buds and silvergrey bark really stand out. In spring dramatic flowers burst from the buds. There can be male and female flowers on the same tree, and unusually the flowers on a branch can change between male and female in different years. The pinnate leaves emerge soon after. Their light canopy allows sunlight to reach the woodland floor, where many flowers can thrive. Ash ‘keys’, single winged seeds develop later in the year and are dispersed by the wind

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Wildlife value of ash: Among flowers that can thrive beneath the light canopy are Ramsons (Wild Garlic), Dog Violet and Dog’s Mercury.

The bark is an important habitat for many lichens and mosses, especially in mature trees, where the splitting wood and hollows also supply great nestsites for birds like Nuthatches, Woodpeckers and Owls. Bats also nest in mature Ash and when the Ash dies, many invertebrates and fungi live and feed on its wood. Several moth caterpillars, including the Privet Hawkmoth, feed on Ash leaves.

When Ash leaves are shed, they return more nutrients to the soil than most leaves, breaking down quickly and supporting good mycorrhizal fungal growth in the earth.

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Human uses of ash wood:
The Ash is an almost-white, shockresistant, strong and pliable wood which has led it to be used for many things including:
• Sports equipment such as snooker cues, tennis rackets, hockey sticks and skis
• Boats, oars, spars, tool-handles, frames and furniture
• Long-bows, shields, and spear handles - the name Ash comes from Old English ‘aesc’ meaning spear.
• Ash is good for wood-turning
• Quickly growing, and coppicing well, it is valued for wood-burning
• Ash was often used by parishes as a boundary-marker

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Ash has been used herbally in the past for a wide range of conditions. It was once used as a cure for snake-bites and was used before to treat conditions as varied as kidney-stones, warts, gout, fever, fluid retention and earache. The bark and leaves were used as an astringent.

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The wind and the Ash: Ash flowers are easily overlooked. Like many trees, the flowers don’t have to be brightly coloured to attract insect or other pollinators as they are wind-pollinated. Once pollinated the flowers form the seeds we know as ‘Ash-keys’, single-winged, and hanging down in bunches.

They gradually mature until they are themselves dispersed by wind, spinning long distances much as Sycamore ‘aeroplanes’ do. Bullfinches, Wood Mice and Dormice are among the wildlife that feed on the calcium-rich seeds.

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Ash die-back: This disease, Chalara, is caused by a fungus which is easily carried by wind and spreads rapidly. It quickly affects young trees, which need to be felled if near public access. It takes longer to kill mature Ash. Ash die-back is radically changing our local landscapes. For example the Peak District has an estimated 8-9 million Ash, many of which are mature.

Their downward-sweeping branches, turning up towards the ends, are an elegant feature of the landscape, as well as supporting important wild-life.

Although the science is complicated a small quantity of Ash seem to be resistant to Ash die-back and this may lead to the ability to slowly replace some of the millions we lose, though this will take many years.

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The Ash in legend:
In Norse legend the Ash was worshipped as a sacred tree, Yggdrasil, the Tree of the World. Yggdrasil was a giant tree whose roots penetrated deep into hell and whose highest tips reached heaven and around which all else exists. Odin, the most powerful of Norse gods, was believed to have carved the first human out of a piece of Ash wood.

The Vikings and Gauls believed the Ash to be protective and three of the five legendary trees of Ireland were held to be Ash trees. On the Isle of Man, Ash was believed to purify spring-waters.

In some areas a sick child would be passed through a cleft in the tree as a cure. Into the 19th century this was still being practised in parts of London. Burning Ash logs was thought to drive out evil spirits from a home.

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Extract from ‘Ash Tree’ by Chris Poundwhite:
‘In so few strides I circumambulate the tree, its centuries, centred in rings of heartwood, sapwood- the circularity of years, charted seasons, bud and leaf-fall, bloom and icicle myth in its fibres, wood made word; the fissured bark of Yggdrasil, world tree, tree of Ask- the first man, tree’.

Extract from John Clare: Christmas:
‘Hung wi’ the ivys veining bough/ The ash trees round the cottage farm/ Are often stript of branches now/ The cotters christmas hearth to warm’.