The late emergence of the leaves of ash trees allows species such as dog violet and mercury to thrive beneath them. The National Trust reports that 30,000 ash trees on its land will have been felled this year owing to ash dieback. In fact, ash dieback is a devastating disease caused by a fungus, Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, likely to have been carried into the UK on imported ash saplings in the early part of this century. The Woodland Trust predicts that ash dieback will eventually kill 80% of ash trees. The scale of this is hard to comprehend: the government estimates there are 125m ash trees in woodlands alone in the UK.

Source: The Guardian December 13, 2021 03:36 UTC