Ash Tree
Note Profile
About
Ash tree is the wood of Fraxinus. The Wood Database gives the same line for six species: a distinct, moderately unpleasant smell when the wood is worked. Woodworkers who name it say sour, like rough cider or brewery mash, or just wet wood. It is a plain hardwood smell, not a sweet or resinous one. Do not confuse it with ash, the burnt residue, which is a different note.
Scent Profile
Ash tree smells of dry, plain hardwood. It has a sour edge, close to rough cider or fermenting mash, and is a little unpleasant in the way worked timber can be. Underneath sits a musty, damp-wood note. It has none of the sweetness of cedar or sandalwood.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
ScentArt
Origin
The wood of ash trees, genus Fraxinus, in the olive family. The odour line is recorded for six species: white ash (F. americana), European ash (F. excelsior), black ash (F. nigra), green ash (F. pennsylvanica), Oregon ash (F. latifolia) and blue ash (F. quadrangulata). The smell is released by cutting, sawing and sanding rather than by the standing tree. No perfumery house sells an ash wood oil or absolute, and no distillation of Fraxinus timber was found, so the perfumery note is a built accord rather than an extract.
Usage in Perfumery
Parfumo lists 35 perfumes with the note, from 2012 to 2025, and says it often runs through the whole fragrance. Some of those listings mean burnt ash, not the tree. Osmofolia Pyrocumulus (2022) and Zoologist Beaver (2014) both use an ash-and-smoke accord that Parfumo files as Ash tree. Where the note does mean the wood, it sits in a blend of woods such as cedar, guaiac and pine. Fragrantica has no ash tree note.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Ash Tree
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Ash Tree appears prominently.
No perfumes featuring this note have been reviewed yet. Check back soon.