Warm days end ‘race’ of trees

The Woodland Trust said the last year that ash trees were recorded as having leafed before oaks was in 1953, the year the Queen was crowned.

Data from the Trust’s Nature’s Calendar records of the changing seasons, shows the chance of seeing the two species coming into leaf together is becoming increasingly rare.

The Trust said in the past, cooler springs ensured a fair race to see which of the two trees would leaf first – with the winner traditionally thought to determine the summer’s weather.

According to folklore, if the oak appeared before the ash, then the summer would be dry with only “a splash” but if the ash produced leaves first, then “we’ll surely have a soak”.

But warmer springs advance oak much more than ash, and rising temperatures mean oaks are repeatedly leafing earlier.

Nature’s Calendar founder Prof Tim Sparks said: “It’s quite clear the driving factor for oak leafing is temperature.” But he said there was no relationship between which tree put out its leaves first and the weather for the rest of the summer.