Ash - Fraxinus

Latin plant name Fraxinus Common plant name Ash (fresno) Plant type Tree Size (meters) <10-45 m Distinguishing features Both names, Latin and English, have the same meaning, spear. The leaves are opposite (rarely in whorls of three), and mostly pinnately compound, simple in a few species. The seeds, popularly known as keys or helicopter seeds, are a type of fruit known as a samara. Ash is a hardwood. Extensively used for making bows, tool handles, baseball bats, hurleys and other uses demanding high strength and resilience. There is a severe pest attacking the ashes all over Europe. Chalara dieback of ash is a serious disease of ash trees caused by a fungus called Chalara fraxinea (C. fraxinea). The disease causes leaf loss and crown dieback in affected trees, and usually leads to tree death.

Coppicing

Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which takes advantage of the fact that many trees make new growth from the stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level. In subsequent growth years, many new shoots will emerge, and, after a number of years the coppiced tree, or stool, is ready to be harvested, and the cycle begins again. (The noun "coppice" means a growth of small trees or a forest coming from shoots or suckers.)

Typically a coppiced woodland is harvested in sections or coups on a rotation. In this way, a crop is available each year somewhere in the woodland. Coppicing has the effect of providing a rich variety of habitats, as the woodland always has a range of different-aged coppice growing in it, which is beneficial for biodiversity. The cycle length depends upon the species cut, the local custom, and the use to which the product is put. Birch can be coppiced for faggots (bundles of brushwood) on a three- or four-year cycle, whereas oak can be coppiced over a fifty-year cycle for poles or firewood.

We can coppice different types of trees:

• Oak (usually used for fences)
• Sweet chestnut (usually used for fences)
• Hazel (used for furniture)
• Ash
• Sycamore
• Willow (used for fuel and weaving)
• Lime (used for decoration)

Sometimes they do the coppicing taking part of the root, where the tree curves and gets into the groudn. There we can find the most flexible part of the tree, as it is where all the water is found.

Beech

		Autumn	Spring
	Copper/Purple beech	Rusty brown leaves	Purple leaves
	Common/Green beech	Rusty brown leaves. They can keep the leaves better during winter	Green leaves

The beech as the oak can make a nice bush. (haya)

The beech as a bush needs shelter from:

• Wind
• Animals (rabbits and goats)

Cuttings

Cuttings is a way of spreading plants.

We will always use the most recent growths of the plant we are cutting.

The hardwood cuttings can be planted directly into the soil.

Semi and soft cuttings will be planted into pots or rooting compost. 

When planting the cuttings, they will need compost to avoid weeds.

HARDWOOD	SEMIHARDWOOD (Shrubs & Evergreens)	SOFTWOOD  (non woody plants)
We will plant them during the dormant season, from November to February	We will plant them from November to December	We will plant them during the active growth season, from June to September
Currant Bushes Whitethorn Dogwood Hazel Holly Ivy Willow (up to April) Roses Hydrangea	Shrubs Herbs Evergreen hedging Magnolia	Pelargonium House plants Fuschia

Growing from the original plant

There are different ways of growing new trees and shrubs from the original plant:

1. Cuttings
2. Layering
3. Suckers

Cuttings

Is a technique for vegetatively (asexually) propagating plants in which a piece of the stem or root of the source plant is placed in a suitable medium such as moist soil, potting mix, coir or rock wool. The cutting produces new roots, stems, or both, and thus becomes a new plant independent of the parent.

This method is done by cutting the last years part of the stem of a plant and planting it in a pot. The cut has to be done right beneath the buds. It should be a diagonal cut and to make the growing surface bigger we can make a scar on the bottom of the stem.

All the upper buds, except the ones at the very top of the stem, should be taken off, as well as any leave that may still be in the stem.

Layering

Is a means of plant propagation in which a portion of an aerial stem grows roots while still attached to the parent plant and then detaches as an independent plant. Layering has evolved as a common means of vegetative propagation of numerous species in natural environments. Layering is also utilized by horticulturists to propagate desirable plants.

The way to do is bending a stem to the ground, making a scar in the part that will be in contact with the soil and pinning it down to the ground.

The roots will come out from any spot of the stem. After a year you can chopped it off and transplant it.

Suckers

A basal shoot, root sprout, adventitious shoot, water sprout or sucker is a shoot or cane which grows from a bud at the base of a tree or shrub or from its roots. A plant that produces suckers is referred to as surculose. Root suckers may emerge some distance from the originating plant. Suckers also may arise from the stumps of trees that have been cut down.

To spread a plant from its suckers we should mount up some soil around the tree covering part of the suckers. This will encourage to grow roots from the little shoots. When they have roots we can cut them separetly and plant them in another part.

The sucker must be cut with the root with a sharp knive.


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If we are taking little trees from a woodland to our house we have to put the trees well tied up in a black plastic bag, not letting any air inside to avoid getting fungi into the roots.

Identifying nearby plant

We collected branches from trees near our homes to identify them in the classroom

Silver maple

Pine tree

Ash

Tree planting distances

Very little root action leading to subsidence damage to buildings in the UK is caused by direct physical pressure exerted by roots. A tree has to be very close to the structure indeed for such damage to occur. Planting a tree so close to a structure that trunk buttressing or increase in trunk diameter was being restricted could lead to damage. More commonly, pavements and boundary walls with little or no foundation may be lifted by large shallow roots of, for example, Populus, poplar, species. Buildings with adequate foundations, standing some distance from trees, are very rarely subject to such direct damage.

Most reported damage is secondary in nature. The problem is confined largely to soil types that shrink considerably on drying. In the UK these are mainly certain types of clay and some peaty, fen soils. Under conditions of drought when tree roots remove water from shrinkable soils, they accelerate the drying and shrinking process. This can lead to loss of support to inadequate foundations and subsequent subsidence. Continued drought, even in the absence of trees, can lead to subsidence in such circumstances.

Tree root spread data have most relevance to relatively ‘safe’ planting distances when relating to trees growing on shrinkable clay soils. Planting distances on other soil types that do not contract on drying have to be determined more by consideration of the respective scale of the buildings and trees, the ultimate size of the trees, and the desirable or undesirable qualities of the trees concerned.