Fears that almost all of Britain’s ash trees face annihilation may be exaggerated, according to a comprehensive genetic analysis of ash across the UK and Europe.
The study, carried out by a collaboration of 12 academic research teams and published in Nature, found that British trees are more likely than their continental counterparts to carry genes that protect against ash dieback, a fungal infection with the potential to wipe out 90 per cent of the European ash population.
“It’s an encouraging hint that things may not be as bad as we had feared,” said study leader Richard Buggs of Queen Mary University of London and Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.