Freixe de fulla gran (Catalan) | Freixo común (Galician) | Freixo-europeo (Portuguese) | Fresno (Spanish) | Frêne (French)
The ash tree can reach between 15 and 20 m high; it has a straight, cylindrical trunk and casting a great deal of shade.
It is a dioecious species, where each specimen is either male or female. Therefore, its reproduction is bi-parental: always needing two progenitors, a characteristic typical of ancient species such as ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) and the kiwi (Actinidia deliciosa), although it is also found in the pistachio (Pistacia vera) who´s fruits also called pistachio.
The leaves are deciduous, turning yellow in the autumn, opposite and compound, comprising of 7 to 13 leaflets (folíolos) facing each other with an additional terminal leaflet generally between 15-45 mm wide. Their margins are uniformly serrated and hairless on both sides.
Branches emerge from the trunk with inconspicuous white flowers that bloom in April and May. They release elongated fruitcalled chambers of a green colour, filled with seeds that have a wing that helps its dispersion in the wind. The samaras are green.
Fraxinus was the name the ancient Romans gave to the ash tree and its wood, its Latin name excelsior meaning ´lofty´or ´higher´is in reference to its great height.
Lizarra,the place of ash trees, is the Basque name for the town of Estella. Its name in Basque appears in the Benedictine monastery Iratxe dating from 958 and in the subsequent century variations such as Leizarrara, Lizarrara, Liçarrara, Lizarara, Liçarra y Lizarra all relating to the abundance of ash trees found on the banks of the river Ega.
Interestingly, the castillian name Éstella related to Stellain Latin, derived from a misuse of the site name Lizarra. This place name was confused with izarra or star in Basque, in Latin stella, and in romance languages derived from Estella. Nowadays both Lizarra and Estella are used to describe the town.
In Basque culture the ash tree is magical, recommending its planting at the front of the farmhouse as an element of protection. On the night of San Juan (Midsummer´s Eve) one of its branches is placed at the door and burnt one year later.
The writer M. Lekuona recorded the following expression: Lizarra ez da bedeinkatu behar; berez da bedeinkatua meaning, the ash doesn´t need to be blessed, it is in itself, blessed.
In Europe it was widely believed that ash leaves or a circle created with its branches, snakes could ward off snakes.
