European ash
Fraxinus excelsior
In Norse mythology, the World Tree Yggdrasil is often depicted as a giant, sacred Ash tree linking the nine realms of existence.
- Scientific name
- Fraxinus excelsior
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Magnoliopsida › Lamiales › Oleaceae › Fraxinus
- IUCN Red List status
- Near Threatened
- Population trend
- decreasing
- Biome
- forest
- Habitat
- Deciduous woodlands, valleys, and limestone hillsides with moist, nutrient-rich soils.
- Diet
- Autotrophic (photosynthesis via sunlight, drawing water and minerals from the soil)
- Range
- Europe, Western Asia, British Isles, Scandinavia
- Size
- Up to 35-40 meters tall, with a trunk diameter of up to 1.5 meters.
- Lifespan
- 200 to 350 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Ash dieback disease (caused by the invasive fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus), Emerald ash borer beetle, and habitat fragmentation.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless. You can safely touch and sit beneath this tree. Avoid climbing mature trees with dead crown branches, as ash dieback makes limbs brittle and prone to sudden snapping.
Fraxinus excelsior , known as the ash , or European ash or common ash to distinguish it from other types of ash, is a flowering plant species in the olive family Oleaceae. It is native throughout mainland Europe east to the Caucasus and Alborz mountains. The northernmost location is in the Trondheimsfjord region of Norway. The species is widely cultivated and reportedly naturalised in New Zealand and in scattered locales in the United States and Canada.
Photo: Jais Knudsen, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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