The Oleaceae is named after the type genus, which is Olea or Olive.
For us in the British Isles we associate the family Oleaceae mainly with the genus Fraxinus or Ash.
But there are 4 more genera of the Oleaceae growing in the wild and they are all well known garden shrubs!
Contents:
Oleaceae or Ash Family
Fraxinus spp. or Ash
F. excelsior or (Common) Ash
F. angustifolia or Narrow-leaved Ash (neophyte)
- subsp. angustifolia
- subsp. oxycarpa
F. ornus or Manna Ash (neophyte)
Forsythia spp. (neophyte)
- F. suspensa or Weeping Forsythia
- F. × intermedia or Forsythia (Forsythia suspensa × viridissima)
Jasminum spp.
- J. beesianum or Red Jasmine
- J. nudiflorum or Winter Jasmine
- J. officinale or Summer Jasmine
Syringa vulgaris or Lilac (Neophyte)
Ligustrum spp. or Privet
- L. vulgare or Wild Privet
- L. ovalifolium or Garden Privet (neophyte)
With thanks for information and links provided from the Plant Atlas Online, Wikipedia, RBG Kew; Plants of the World Online, the Woodland Trust and other websites. Pictures by Mike Poulton, Matt Summers and Wikipedia Commons with thanks!
Oleaceae or Ash Family
Oleaceae is known as the Olive family, the Lillac family and with us it is the Ash family as it is our main and only native member!
Notable other members include Olive of course and several popular ornamental shrubs including Privet, Forsythia, Fringetrees (Chionanthus spp.), Lilac and Jasmine.
Worldwide it has 28 genera , and the number of species in the Oleaceae is variously estimated in a wide range around 700. The flowers are often numerous and highly odoriferous. The family has a subcosmopolitan distribution, ranging from the subarctic to the southernmost parts of Africa, Australia, and South America.
But let’s explore what we have here on the British Isles!
Fraxinus spp. or Ash
Fraxinus, commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous (dropping their leaves in autumn), although some subtropical species are evergreen. The genus is widespread throughout much of Europe, Asia, and North America.
There are 3 species known growing in the wild in the British Isles:
Fraxinus excelsior or Ash
The native range of this species is Europe to Iran. Ireland is its most western boundary.
A deciduous tree of woodland, scrub and hedgerows, especially on moist, basic soils, but also frequent on rock scars and cliffs, stabilized scree, and the grikes of limestone pavement. It can tolerate periodically waterlogged soils, being found around springs and in alder- and willow-carr, but it is susceptible to drought. In managed woodland it may be grown as a timber tree or coppice. It is a rapid colonizer of abandoned arable land, waste ground, disused quarries, and railway banks. Seed production can be prolific, with periodic mast years, although seedling mortality is usually very high.
Our ‘common’ ash rarely exceeds 250 years of age. However, there are numerous specimens estimated between 200 and 250 years old and there are a few over 250. The largest is in Clapton Court, and is 9 m (29.5 ft) in girth. There are several examples over 4.5 metres (14.8 ft) in Derbyshire alone.
There is Fraxinus excelsior ‘Pendula’ or Weeping Ash, which can often be admired in parks or large gardens.
In northern Scotland, is the most northerly native ashwood of Britain called: Rassal Ashwood.
The resilience and rapid growth made it an important resource for smallholders and farmers.
It was probably the most versatile wood in the countryside with wide-ranging uses. Until World War II, the trees were often coppiced on a 10-year cycle to provide a sustainable source of timber for fuel and poles for building and woodworking.
- The colour of the wood ranges from creamy white to light brown, and the heart wood may be a darker olive-brown.
- Ash timber is hard, tough and very hard-wearing, with a coarse, open grain and a density of 710 kg/m3.
- It lacks oak’s natural resistance to decay, and is not as suitable for posts buried in the ground. Because of its high flexibility, shock resistance, and resistance to splitting, ash wood is the traditional material for bows, tool handles, especially for hammers and axes, tennis rackets, and snooker cues.
- Ash was extensively used in the construction of early aircraft, and is, or has been used in the construction of some motor vehicles such as Morgan and Morris Traveller.
- Ash was commonly used green for making chair frames which would be seated with another timber or with woven rush (e.g. those made by Philip Clissett, see also The English Regional Chair. The parts were turned on a pole lathe or shaped with a drawknife. The practice essentially died out in the early 20th century, but has seen a revival in recent years.
Ash is an important constituent of wood pasture, a European management system in which open woodland provided shelter and forage for grazing animals. Ash was coppiced and pollarded, often in hedgerows, and evidence in the form of some huge boles with multiple trunks emerging at head height can still be seen in parts of Britain.
The Glen Lyon ash is a notable example of a pollarded ash which at about 400–500 years of age achieved a girth of 6 m (20 ft).
- In Northumberland, crab and lobster pots (traps) sometimes known as ‘creeves’ by local people are still made from ash sticks.
- Because of its elasticity European ash wood was commonly used for walking sticks. Poles were cut from a coppice and the ends heated in steam. The wood could then be bent in a curved vise to form the handle of the walking stick.
- The light colour and attractive grain of ash wood make it popular in modern furniture such as chairs, dining tables, doors, and other architectural features and wood flooring.
- Ash is the only wood used for the manufacture of hurleys, referred to as hurls in parts of Leinster and known as a camán in Irish, the timber sticks used in the game of hurling in Ireland.
Hurleys are manufactured from the butt log (bottom 1.5-m of the stem) and from trees ideally of a diameter at breast height around 25–30 cm (9.8–12 in). Only fast-grown, straight, and knot-free ash can be used for this purpose. Due to the lack of available ash in Ireland, over 75% of the timber needed to produce the 350,000 hurleys required for the game annually must be imported, mostly from Eastern European countries.The importance of ash timber to the game of hurling is reflected in the fact that the game is referred to all over Ireland as “The Clash of the Ash”.
Ash is valuable as firewood because it burns well even when ‘green’ (freshly cut).
Ash bark and leaves are used in modern herbal medicine for their astringent and laxative properties
Ash is one of our most useful and versatile native tree species, providing valuable habitat for a wide range of dependent species. It can grow in a variety of soils and climatic conditions. The ‘airy’ nature of its foliage allows light to penetrate to the woodland floor, encouraging ground plants and fauna. A number of insects, other invertebrates, lichens and mosses depend wholly on ash for habitat.
- It is an early-succession species and may well outcompete beech and oak, which are later-succession species.
- The Biological Records Centre of the UK records 111 species of insects and mites using ash as a food plant, of which 29 are specific to ash.
- In Britain, 14 galls have been recorded on ash. The British Plant Gall Society defines a gall as “… an abnormal growth produced by a plant under the influence of another organism”.
Ash dieback (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus) is a devastating fungal disease widespread across the U.K. first confirmed in 2012.
The disease affects trees of all ages. Young trees can be killed in one season and older trees tend to succumb after several seasons of infection. Whilst ash dieback is certainly capable of killing trees in its own right, in many cases the weakened tree is colonised by another pathogen, particularly honey fungus, which then accelerates the decline and death of the tree.
Ash dieback has spread rapidly in continental Europe. In the UK, the disease was first confirmed in trees growing in nurseries or on recently planted ash trees. However, many cases have now been confirmed in the wider environment in the UK and the disease is widely distributed. The latest distribution maps for cases of the disease in the wider environment can be found on the Forestry Commission website.
It causes leaf loss, lesions, and canopy dieback, predicted to kill up to 90% of ash trees. There is no cure, causing significant ecological damage and public safety risks from falling deadwood.
The Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) is not currently present in the U.K. but poses a major threat, with strict precautions against its arrival from Russia and Ukraine, where it is established. This invasive beetle devastates ash trees, having killed millions in North America. The beetle is a priority for UK biosecurity due to potential further damage to the already threatened ash population.
F. angustifolia or Narrow-leaved Ash
A tall deciduous tree, up to 25 m tall, grown predominately in gardens, parks and as a street tree. Lowland.
F. ornus or Manna Ash
A very leafy deciduous tree, up to 20 m tall. Widely planted as a garden and street tree, in other amenity plantings and occasionally in more open countryside.
The native range of this species is E. Central & S. Europe to Caucasus.
The ‘fluffy’ flowers of the Manna Ash (By Robert Flogaus-Faust – in Wikipedia Common)
Fraxinus ornus is frequently grown as an ornamental tree in Europe north of its native range for its decorative flowers—the species is also sometimes called “flowering ash”. Some cultivated specimens are grafted on rootstocks of Fraxinus excelsior, with an often very conspicuous change in the bark at the graft line to the fissured bark of the rootstock species.
A sugary extract from the sap may be obtained from the bark of the tree; which was compared to biblical manna in late medieval times (attested circa 1400 AD), giving rise to the name of the tree in English, Spanish (fresno del maná), and Italian (frassino da manna). Likewise, the sugar alcohol mannitol derives its name from the extract.
Forsythia spp.
There are about 11 species of Forsythia, which is named after William Forsyth (1737–1804), a Scottish botanist who was a royal head gardener and a founding member of the Royal Horticultural Society.
The native range of this genus is SE. Europe, China to Japan.
Forsythia are beautiful, early spring-flowering shrubs, covered in yellow blooms. They flower before the glossy lanceolate foliage and are often seen in private gardens and parks.
Not many people associate them with autumn colour; the leaves go a butter yellow or tinged red before dropping.
Two species of forsythia are at the heart of the selected forms and garden hybrids: Forsythia suspensa and F. viridissima. “These two species are, as it were, the founder-members of the forsythia family” writes Alice Coats; they were the earliest species brought into Western gardens from the Far East and they have each played a role in the modern garden shrubs.
Forsythias are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the brown-tail and Gothic moth.
There are also Traditional Chinese Medicinal Uses according to Wikipedia and:
Forsythia sticks are used to bow a Korean stringed instrument called an ajaen.
F. suspensa or Weeping Forsythia showing its habit with a closer up branch above . (Both pictures by KENPEI – KENPEI’s in Wikipedia Commons)
A rambling and trailing deciduous shrub, growing up to 10 m tall, but more often in a tangled mass and rooting at the nodes. It is grown in gardens and is found scattered in waste places and on the remains of old cultivation.
The native range of this species is China.
Introduced into Britain just before 1857, F. suspensa remains an uncommon outcast, although it apparently naturalizes more easily than the much better known and more widespread hybrid F. × intermedia. It is almost certainly under-recorded for this hybrid. The first known record from the wild was in 1952, near Bury St. Edmunds, West Suffolk.
It is one of the 50 fundamental herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine. It contains the lignans Pinoresinol and phillyrin.
- F. × intermedia or Garden Forsythia (Forsythia suspensa × viridissima)
A deciduous shrub found frequently as a relic of cultivation in hedges and by roads, rivers and canals; it may also survive from discarded material on commons, refuse tips and waste ground. The hybrid sometimes spreads by suckering. All plants in the wild seem to be derived from vegetative fragments and it does not appear to set viable seed.
This hybrid can get a bit problematic due to its suckering habit, sprouting up everywhere amongst other shrubs as I found out again today in an overgrown border together with the lilac (see below) who also does a lot of that!! Early removal of these suckers with as much roots attached as possible (= free plants!) is best and making sure the main plant is happy enough!
F. × intermedia was found as a chance seedling in Germany in 1878, close to its supposed parents, and was first grown in Britain ten years later. It has been known from the wild since at least 1970, when it was found on waste ground at Heamoor (West Cornwall), although a record of F. europaea from Bury St Edmunds (West Suffolk) from 1952 was probably this hybrid. It is a very common and vigorous garden plant, which appears to be increasing in the wild with continued dumping of garden waste, though the spread of this species in recent decades must also be a reflection of the fuller recording of aliens, and particularly of planted shrubs.
The hybrid is best suited to a position in full sun or partial shade and is drought-tolerant. Like some other forsythias it is one of the earliest shrubs to flower.
There are quite a few cultivars mentioned on Wikipedia and 4 of the best on the RHS website:
- Marée d’Or (‘Courtasol’)AGM: a low, wide-spreading deciduous shrub to 90cm tall.
- Lynwood Variety AGM: one of the best known cultivars-vigorous and larger flowers.
- Goldrausch: vigorous and larger flowers and appear slightly later in spring.
- Week End (‘Courtalyn’) AGM: erect branches bearing abundant bright golden-yellow flowers about 3cm across
Jasminum spp. or Jasmin (Neophytes)
As of April 2026, Plants of the World Online lists and describes 202 species and one hybrid!
The native range of this genus is Tropical & Subtropical Old World to Central China and Pacific.
They are mostly trained as a climber, although they are classified as a scrambling and twining shrub.
There are only 3 Jasmins to be found in the wild in the British Isles according to Plant Atlas Online:
A scrambling, twining shrub, naturalized on walls and rough ground. It is evergreen in warmer climates but is generally deciduous here.
This species was first introduced in Britain in 1906, and is increasingly popular in gardens. It was not recorded from the wild until as recently as 1999 (Deganwy, Caernarvonshire).
The native range of this species is SE. Tibet to S. Central China.
It has small red-pink, fragrant flowers. It needs a good support as it is vigorous!
A deciduous, scrambling or trailing winter-flowering shrub, found as a garden escape in woods, scrub and hedgerows, and on walls, roadsides and waste ground, but seldom far from human habitations. It also occurs as a throw-out on roadsides and refuse tips, and as a relic of cultivation. Although deciduous, the stems are winter-green and bear flowers in winter and early spring.
J. nudiflorum was introduced into cultivation in Britain in 1844. It was first recorded from the wild in 1940 (Cambridgeshire) and appears to be increasing its range. Although it can be found throughout Britain and Ireland, it appears to be most common in and around London, though some of these records may be from gardens.
Jasminum nudiflorum is valued by gardeners as one of the few plants that are in flower during the winter months. It is frequently trained against a wall to provide extra warmth and shelter, but also lends itself to groundcover. It tolerates hard pruning and should be pruned in spring immediately after flowering; regular pruning will help to prevent bare patches.
It can also be grown as a bonsai and is very tolerant of the wiring methods.
It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society‘s Award of Garden Merit. It can be propagated using the layering technique.
The native range of this species is SE. Tibet to Central China.
A scrambling, twining, deciduous shrub which is naturalized on walls, pavements, roadsides, banks and waste ground, seldom far from human habitations. It also occurs as a throw-out on roadsides and refuse tips, and as a relic of cultivation.
Reproduction by seed has been reported, although vegetative spread is the more common mechanism; the trailing stems root freely.
The native range of this species is Transcaucasus to S. Central China.
J. officinale was being grown in British gardens by 1548, and probably long before that. As a garden plant in London it features in William Turner‘s Names of Herbes, 1548.
It was first recorded from the wild in 1967 (East Suffolk). Although it can be found throughout the B.I., it appears to be most frequent in the London area, though some of these records may be of planted individuals in gardens.
Uses:
This is a valuable, heavenly scented scrambling shrub usually trained over an arbour for support.
Pictures of the ‘Common’ Summer Jasmine and the cultivar ‘Fiona’s Sunrise’ or Golden Poet’s Jasmine against a laurel hedge in the Nuthurst civil parish of West Sussex. England. (from Wikipedia Commons)
Numerous cultivars have been developed for garden use, often with golden or variegated foliage. The cultivar ‘Argenteovariegatum’, with cream-white variegation on the leaves, has gained the Royal Horticultural Society‘s Award of Garden Merit.
The essential oil of Jasminum officinale is used in aromatherapy. Jasmine absolute has a heavy, sweet scent valued by perfumers. The flowers release their perfume at dusk, so flowers are picked at night and a tiny amount of oil is obtained from each blossom by solvent extraction. The result is an expensive oil which can be used in low concentrations.
Syringa vulgaris or Lilac
A deciduous shrub, widely planted in gardens, parkland, churchyards, plantations and hedges and along roadsides and railways. It is also found as a relic of cultivation in sites of former human habitation and occasionally establishes where garden waste has been dumped. Reproduction is mostly via suckering and establishment from seed is rare, usually on walls, wall-tops and pollarded willows in urban areas.
As with the Forsythia above this plant can get overenthusiastic by suckering which can cause problems in an established border for its neighbouring plants. Early removal of those is recommended, preferably with as much roots attached! Also keep the main plant happy by routine pruning after flowering!
The native range of this species is N. Balkan Peninsula to N. Central Romania.
S. vulgaris was in cultivation in Britain by 1596, becoming extremely popular in parks and gardens in the 19th century, with a multitude of cultivars. It was known from the wild by at least 1879 (Oxfordshire). The astonishing increase in records since the 1960s is probably due to both a better recording of aliens and a genuine increase in planting and garden escapes.
The lilac is a very popular ornamental plant in gardens and parks because of its attractive, sweet-smelling flowers, which appear in early summer.
Most garden plants of S. vulgaris are cultivars, the majority of which do not exceed 4–5 m (13–16 ft) tall. Between 1876 and 1927, the nurseryman Victor Lemoine of Nancy, France, introduced over 153 named cultivars, many of which are considered classics and still in commerce today. Lemoine’s “French lilacs” extended the limited color range to include deeper, more saturated hues, and many of them are double-flowered “sports”, with the stamens replaced by extra petals.
Several cultivars of S. vulgaris have received the Royal Horticultural Society‘s Award of Garden Merit.
It is also slowly making its way into the world of bonsai where it is loved for its flowers and multistem features.
The flowers of common lilac are edible and used for flavouring honeys, sugars, food and other sweets.
Many other uses:
8 detailed recipes how to use lilac can be found here and 14 lilac blossom recipes here.
A.I. summarised the following uses:
Culinary & Edible Products
- Lilac Syrup: A versatile syrup used for lemonade, drizzling on pancakes, or in cocktails.
- Lilac Sugar: Created by layering lilac blossoms with sugar to infuse flavor, ideal for baking in muffins or biscuits.
- Lilac Jelly: A sweet jelly made from fresh lilac tea.
- Candied Lilacs: Individual blossoms coated in egg white and sugar, dried to use as cake decorations.
- Lilac Ice Cream & Butter: Infused directly into dairy for a floral, aromatic flavor.
- Sore Throat Elixir: A mixture of lilacs, violets, honey, and brandy.
Fragrance & Wellness Products
- Dried Lilac Sachets: Dried flowers placed in cloth bags for natural home fragrance.
- Bath Soaks & Infusions: Dried flowers used for aromatic baths.
- Lilac Tincture: Made by infusing flowers in vodka and glycerin for aromatic or herbal uses.
- Infused Oil: Used as a base for lotions or lotions.
Other Products
Floral Imagery: Textiles and decor inspired by the colour and shape of the flowers.
Ligustrum spp. or Privet
The genus contains about 50 species of erect, deciduous or evergreen shrubs or trees.
The native range of this genus is NW. Africa, Eurasia to Queensland.
A plant may produce thousands of fruits, most of which are eaten by birds. Privet is used as a food plant by the larvae of some moth species including the common emerald, common marbled carpet, copper underwing, engrailed, mottled beauty, scalloped hazel, small angle shades, v-pug, privet hawk moth and willow beauty.
Ligustrum vulgare or Wild Privet (Native in Britain and the Channel Islands and a neophyte in Ireland)
A deciduous to semi-evergreen shrub found as a native in hedgerows, woodland and scrub, preferring well-drained, calcareous or base-rich soils. It is also very widely planted, particularly in hedges and woodland, and occurs as a garden escape and a relic of cultivation.
The species was used for hedging in Elizabethan gardens in England, but was superseded by the more reliably evergreen introduction L. ovalifolium from Japan, described below.
A number of cultivars have been selected but only found 2 which were offered by nurseries:
- ‘Lodense’ – dense, dwarf shrub (the name is a portmanteau of ‘low’ and ‘dense’).
- ‘Pyramidale’ – fastigiate.
L. ovalifolium or Garden Privet
A semi-evergreen or evergreen shrub, abundantly planted for hedging and commonly found as a persistent relic in old gardens, or a garden throw-out in hedges, refuse tips, waste land and on railway banks.
Plants very occasionally arise from bird-sown seed although it seldom flowers freely in gardens due to the constant trimming of boundary hedges.
L. ovalifolium has been cultivated in Britain since 1842, and was first recorded from the wild in 1939 (Hampstead, Surrey). Trends in its distribution are difficult to assess due to past recorders frequently ignoring planted hedges.
Ligustrum ovalifolium is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including common emerald, common marbled carpet, copper underwing, the engrailed, mottled beauty, scalloped hazel, small angle shades, the V-pug and willow beauty.
All parts of the plant are poisonous if ingested by humans. The berries are especially poisonous to animals and while birds can eat them with no consequences, dogs can get very sick from eating them.
If allowed to grow as a large shrub it will flower in midsummer, the abundant white blooms producing a unique pungent fragrance, which is unpleasant to some.
The species is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in many countries, as a shrub, and grouped for an informal or formal hedge.
Ligustrum ovalifolium is the most common hedging plant species in cultivation in the United Kingdom.
Several cultivars are used in gardens and for hedging, including Ligustrum ovalifolium ‘Aureum’, the Golden Privet, with oval, rich yellow leaves with green centers. It is beautiful in some shadier part of the garden. This has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.
Privet became very popular in Britain as a replacement for ornamental railings around properties, which had been lost to the 1941 U.K. government’s requisitioning of, with few exceptions, all post-1850 iron gates and railings for the war effort.
The government had the intention of melting down the donated metal for use in the manufacture of armaments in WWII, although it is not certain how much of the metal was actually used. The remaining stubs of sawn-off railings can still be seen on many garden walls in the UK, often partly obscured by privet bushes.
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