The Blue Ash is a medium-to-large-sized shade tree, historically characteristic of Bluegrass pastures. Tolerant of limestone soils and drought, blue ashes can be found at Shaker Village along thinly soiled limestone ridges.

Early colonists used the inner bark of this tree and the sap for a blue dye. Before the Victorian period, blue ash was the primary wood used for flooring and stair treads in the Bluegrass. Around 1809, Henry Clay, a Kentucky Statesman, named his 600+ acre property “Ashland” to honor the many blue ash trees on the property.

Blue ash can be distinguished from other ashes by its square-shaped twig. Since 2002, the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle originating from China, has killed hundreds of millions of ash trees in North America. The blue ash has shown more resistance to the emerald ash borer than other ashes.

Images courtesy of:
Ohio State University
Sault College
Indiana University
Purdue University Fort Wayne