Ash
Birch
Cherry
Oak
Sycamore
Sweet Chestnut
Walnut

Chairman
Mr Graham Taylor
Pryor and Rickett Silviculture
The Sheepcote
Monks Orchard, Lugwardine
Herefordshire
HR1 4AG
Tel. +44 01432 851311

Vice-Chairman
Mr Pat Doody
Coillte Teo
Ballintemple Nursery
Ardattin
Co Carlow
Ireland
Tel. +353 5991 55005

Secretary
Ms Joanna Clark
Northmoor Trust
Hill Farm
Little Wittenham
Abingdon
Oxon OX14 4QZ
Tel +44 01865 407792

email the Ash group at

Ash - Fraxinus excelsior L.

In Britain ash was recorded as the third most common broadleaved species in the most recent Census of Woodlands and Trees, and today is the second most widely planted broadleaved tree. In Ireland a similar situation exists and the recently published National Forest Inventory results show that ash accounts for 2.8% of the forest area and is the second most widely planted species after birch.The attraction of ash is that it is native, produces valuable timber on a relatively short rotation, and grows well on suitable sites over much of lowland Britain and Ireland. However, planted trees are often poorly adapted to British and Irish conditions, originating from foreign stock. BIHIP hopes to address this problem by providing the forester with superior planting stock of local provenance where appropriate.
To this end, we have set ourselves the following targets:

1. To select 500 superior individuals on a regional basis across Great Britain and Ireland, matching the current guidelines issued by the Forestry Commission and the Forest Service.

2. To collect reproductive material from the selected trees either as seed for progeny trials, or scion material for the development of clone banks for gene conservation and the establishment of clonal seed orchards.

3. To establish breeding seedling seed orchards to provide seed from tested progenies for the forest industry.

4. To investigate adaptation to climate change.

Ash has a reputation for being site demanding, requiring base rich, freely draining but moist soils. It is highly susceptible to forking, partly due to the ash bud moth (Prays fraxinella), but increasing evidence points to early flushing and subsequent late frost damage as being a significant cause. While growth and vigour are important elements of any improvement programme, research into the time of flushing and the degree to which this is genetically controlled are essential to the ash programme.

Ash is a dioecious species and shows a continuum of gender from pure males, through several stages of hermaphrodite, to pure females. (PHOTO flowers). Because scion material used for grafting is taken from the crowns of trees, this material already expresses the gender and other characteristics of the parents. Thus, in clonal orchards, gender is expressed in the first year, and seed can be produced after two years but not in commercial quantities. In seedling orchards, the trees do not begin to express gender until 15–20 years. The gender of each tree must therefore be determined prior to culling the orchard to ensure that there is a suitable balance of seed producing trees and pollen donors

Current Research

What has been achieved so far

1. Plus Tree Selections

At present, Great Britain is divided into four Regions of Provenance and 23 Seed Zones while the Republic of Ireland is classified as one region and
Northern Ireland as another region of provenance. While there is much controversy over the practicality of using this system, all breeding work is recorded on this basis. Native tree planting schemes encourage the use of local seed. The ash group currently has 350 selected Plus Trees. These form the basis for all our breeding work. Plus Trees are the very best individuals from within a stand. Usually, only one or two trees are selected per population (stand) - perhaps only one tree in 10,000 - to ensure we maintain a broad genetic base for our breeding work. However, as ash is dioecious, we sometime select three or four to increase the likelihood of selecting female (seed bearing) trees.

2. Clonal Seed Orchards.

Many of these Plus Trees have now been grafted on to selected root stocks and planted out in clonal seed orchards. There will be three such orchards. The orchard comprising grafts from Region 30 (western England and Wales) was planted on a private estate in Devon in 2006. The Region 40 (lowland eastern England) orchard will be planted winter 2007 at Little Wittenham in Oxfordshire. We are currently seeking funds to enable the collection of scion material and produce the grafts for an orchard for Scotland. As high quality ash is less common further north, practicalities mean that there will be one orchard for Scotland, containing grafts from both Regions of Provenance 10 and 20. We hope to plant this orchard in 2010.

In Ireland approximately 100 Plus trees were selected in the early 1990’s under an EU ECLAIR Programme and todate two untested clonal seed orchards, based on this selected material have been established one in 2003 and another in 2006. To conserve selected Plus Tree material clone banks have also been established in Britain and in Ireland.

Ash Clonal orchard

The term clonal here simply means vegetative propagation, such as taking cuttings from a favourite garden plant. The clonally propagated trees are not genetically modified or “engineered” in any way.

3. Breeding Seedling Orchards

Four breeding seedling orchards (BSOs) were planted in Britain in 1993. The orchards have been measured for growth and vigour several times. Final measurements will be recorded in 2008 when we will determine the very best trees for the seed orchard. The poorer performers will then be removed leaving the best individuals to produce seed by breeding with each other. Under the forest reproductive material regulations, these orchards will be registered as tested – the highest category of material available for forest practices.

4. Phenology studies

Phenology – time of budburst in spring and budset in the autumn is critical for ash. The terminal bud, which is flanked by two laterals is the first to break in the spring. If this is damaged by frost, the two laterals take over, and a fork develops which is an undesirable timber characteristic. We score the time of budburst in all our orchards and provenance trials, using a five-point scoring system. The data collected is used to determine which provenances are likely to perform best at different locations. We are currently looking at provenances from France that might be better suited to growing in our projected warmer climate, but will still flush later than those provenances from further south. Provenances from more southerly latitudes or more continental regions flush earlier than our native ash, but then suffer from frost damage. Even taking in to account the projected warming of our climate, late spring frosts are still likely to occur.

Seed stands

The above programmes can lead to large gains in quality – reduced rotation times and improved form resulting in an increase of 10 to 20 percent in recoverable timber volume. However, this work takes a considerable amount of time and expense. The quickest and cheapest way to make a small improvement in the quality of material provided to the industry is to collect seed from registered stands of excellent quality.

We are also looking for high quality stands of ash, and indeed all broadleaved species. They are recorded on the national register, managed by Forest Research in Britain and COFORD or the Forest Service in Ireland. Registration is free. Seed merchants and nurserymen use the egister to obtain better quality seed and will pay a premium for it.

Related Research

Genetics

The Fraxigen project carried out research on the population genetics and regeneration of European Fraxinus populations, so as to provide a fuller understanding of the biological and ecological processes which have shaped Fraxinus populations in Europe.

RAP - Realising Ash's Potential

This programme aims to improve the productivity of ash for European needs by selection, testing, propagation, and promotion of improved genetic resources. More information available on their homepage.

Group Membership

The ash group currently has 10 members:

If you would like to participate in this project and think you may have high quality ash on your estate, the BIHIP ash group would like to hear from you.  You can download the data recording sheet for Plus Trees here. We are always looking for additional parents to include in our breeding programme.  For this, or to contact any of the Group Members please contact the Ash Group secretary Ms. Joanna Clark ().