European Ash Leaf Tea

There’s a very long historical tradition of using European Ash as a medicine. Its uses as a medicinal herb were already known by the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.).

The Vikings considered the European Ash a sacred tree. In Norse mythology, the ash Yggdrasil was an immense tree that was the center of the world and spread its crown over the whole earth. It was said it was the World Tree around which the nine worlds existed.

If we take a look at the root meaning of the word, “ash” actually isn’t related to what’s left after a fire. It comes from the old English “æsc”, which shares a common ancestry with the German word “Esche” for this tree. The Latin name “Fraxinus” means “light-colored” and refers to the color of the bark.

Ash tree leaves were considered to work as an antidote against snake bites. They’re said to counter the venom’s activity. Legends even reminisce that snakes even avoided crawling near the tree, to the point of trying to avoid the shade it projected on the ground!

Today, many are named after the Ash tree, either as first names or as last names as well: Ashley, Ash, Ashlyn, Ashton…

For the names of places, there are a great many in England: Ashby, Ashford, Ashbourne, Ashburton…

Habitat: The European Ash is found in most parts of Europe from the Mediterranean Sea in the south to Norway in the north and to the Caucasus and western Russia in the east.

Description: European Ash is a large tree that can grow up to 40 meters. The ash is long-lived with a normal age around 200 years, but there are some trees that are older than 500 years.

The leaves appear very late in the spring, sometimes after the beginning of June, and fall again in the early autumn.

The small flowers are reddish-brown to black and lack normal petals. European Ash does not flower until it has reached 30 years. Some trees have female flowers while others have male flowers or even both. It’s interesting that the Ash is also known to change its sex from year to year.

Other Common Names: Ash, common ash, weeping ash, bird’s tongue.