Garden & avenue classics
Claret Ash
Fraxinus angustifolia 'Raywood'
When a whole street in Camberwell or Malvern turns wine-red in April, you're looking at claret ash. It's an Australian story: the cultivar was discovered near Adelaide around 1910 at a property called Raywood, and from there it spread to streets and gardens around the world.
How to spot a claret ash
Leaves
Fine, narrow leaflets arranged in feathery sets along a central stalk, giving the whole crown a soft, ferny texture.
Autumn colour
The signature. Deep claret to burgundy, reliably every year, often holding a week or two before dropping all at once.
Bark
Pale grey and smooth when young, developing shallow furrows with age.
Form
A rounded, upright crown to 15 or 20 metres, reached quickly. Claret ash is one of the faster growers on Melbourne streets.
Winter
Bare and fine-twigged, with dark buds. The fast growth shows in long, straight annual shoots.
Where you'll see it around the south east
Post-war streets and gardens across Camberwell, Canterbury, Malvern and the wider east, where it was planted in numbers for its speed and colour. Often the tallest thing in a 1950s or 60s garden.
Worth knowing
Like many fast-growing trees, claret ash can form tight, narrow branch unions with bark trapped inside the fork, which is one reason formative pruning while a tree is young is time well spent. It's also a factual point of identification: mature claret ashes often show several near-vertical stems rising from one point.
Easily confused with
Desert ash has similar foliage but turns yellow, not red, and golden ash has yellow twigs and butter-coloured autumn leaves. Nothing else on a Melbourne street does true claret.
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