Ash

The Ash tree can be found in all parts of Scotland, sometimes many together as Ash forest, sometimes singly planted along field boundaries or by old settlements. They prefer limestone areas but will grow well in many conditions, except exceedingly dry or acid and peaty. It is very large, over a metre across and up to thirty metres high, and its distinctive all-over pale grey colouring makes it stand out against other trees and in the landscape in Winter. Bark is smooth until the tree reaches maturity, when it becomes rough and cracked, or fissured The branches are up-reaching but on old trees they droop down low then curl up at the ends. The buds are a very dark matt grey/brown. . The flowers – male and female parts together – are dark pink or crimson, opening in April. The leaves do not open until well into May.

The bright green leaves, soft and glossy, are made up in four or five pairs on a pale green stalk, with single tip leaf. The stalks, turning yellow, often stay on the tree after the leaves have fallen. Ahead of the leaves the flowers are turning into little seeds, which become green winged seed cases, or Keys - curved wings that will carry seed far on the wind. Some birds eat the ripening Keys, such as Bullfinches, but it is common to see brown bunches of Keys still hanging on the tree well into the following year. The hard pale timber has been used for oars and spears and tool handles and furniture, and is excellent firewood. In the past, country folk would extract the sap of the tree - in Gaelic ‘snothach’, pronounced ‘snooach’ – and feed it to newborn babies to promote health. People would also pickle the Ash Keys to store for nourishment in late Winter. The pickled Keys are not particularly pleasant to eat, but the little seed, extracted from the newly ripened Key, tastes of Ginger – and is Ginger in colour. The Gaelic name for the Ash - ‘Uinsinn’, pronounced ‘ooshin’ – is in place names such as Lag an uinsin, meaning ‘Ashfield’, and Aird uinsinn, meaning ‘Point, or Height, of Ash’.