Not far from a small stream with a row of Lombardy Poplars, at the edge of a field, grow some big trees with rounded treetops. Those rather majestic trees are Ashes (Fraxinus excelsior).
They grow nearly everywhere where there is enough moisture in the soil, not only as solitary trees but also as a part of deciduous forests and along rivers.
Those three Ashes are grown so high their treetops are hidden from view by lower vegetation; the leaves in the picture are those of trees and bushes that surround them.
On young trees the bark is smooth, when it grows older crevasses form, and the trunk begins to look like that of an Oak.
The leaves are pinnate and deep green. Here below you see those of a young tree from this year besides some Great Horsetails.
And now, in March, the flower buds of Ashes come out. Buds of flowers and leaves are black.
This tree here only has male flowers. There are no petals or sepals, the stamina, some of them already open, are bare.