\n<\/p>\n
A much-loved ash tree in the heart of Glasgow has won the annual tree of the year competition organised by the Woodland Trust.<\/p>\n
While many trees that have featured in the competition are located in the remote British countryside, the Argyle Street ash is on one of the city\u2019s busiest roads.<\/p>\n
Author James Cowan described the tree in his 1951 book From Glasgow\u2019s Treasure Chest as \u201cquite the most graceful ash I have seen\u201d. This is a point of pride for those who live nearby, and the quote is displayed in the pub opposite the tree.<\/p>\n
Cowan\u2019s book also recounts an urban legend that a sapling grew by accident when a local family returned from holiday with primrose roots, one of which contained the ash seed.<\/p>\n
It is the only tree in the street and stands 75ft tall, casting shade on the sandstone tenement houses.<\/p>\n
Many ash trees across the country have been felled due to the fungal disease ash dieback, which kills them. So far the Argyle Street ash, planted in the Victorian era, has survived the Clydeside blitz, recent redevelopment and the disease.<\/p>\n
<\/span>The \u2018King of Limbs\u2019 oak tree in Wiltshire, which inspired a Radiohead album title.<\/span> Photograph: Lee Cooper\/Woodland Trust\/PA<\/p>\n The tree beat beat the \u201cKing of Limbs\u201d oak that inspired a Radiohead album title, and \u201cthe Lonely Tree\u201d, which sits on the edge of Llyn Padarn in north Wales.<\/p>\n Also in the top five were the Lady Jane Grey oak in Bradgate Park in Leicester, and a majestic cedar with low-sweeping boughs where the Beatles were once photographed at Chiswick House in London.<\/p>\n Adam Cormack, the head of campaigning at the Woodland Trust, said: \u201cTrees really matter to people, and this is clear from the response we\u2019ve seen to the Argyle Street ash. Trees inspire us to write stories and create art, whilst connecting us to cultural legacies and a sense of place. We encourage people to notice and enjoy the trees around them, and learn more about how they benefit us \u2013 from boosting biodiversity and wellbeing, to mitigating the effects of climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n The arborist David Treanor, who has been managing the ash in recent years, nominated the tree, which has been protected by a tree preservation order, thought to be one of the first in Glasgow.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essential<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Among others who nominated the Argyle Street ash were the local MSP Paul Sweeney, and Stuart Murdoch of the band Belle and Sebastian.<\/p>\n It is a second victory in a row for Scotland, after the triumph of the Skipinnish oak last year.<\/p>\n The winner of the Woodland Trust\u2019s tree of the year competition will go on to represent the UK in the European tree of the year contest in early 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A much-loved ash tree in the heart of Glasgow has won the annual tree of the year competition organised by the Woodland Trust. While many trees that have featured in the competition are located in the remote British countryside, the Argyle Street ash is on one of the city\u2019s busiest roads. Author James Cowan described<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[14500,10266,2883,998,12530,1276,3751,724,1975,1569],"class_list":{"0":"post-23802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-argyle","9":"tag-ash","10":"tag-competition","11":"tag-forests","12":"tag-glasgow","13":"tag-street","14":"tag-tree","15":"tag-trees","16":"tag-wins","17":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}