Pinnate leaves with nine to fifteen toothed leaflets set alternately, not in opposite pairs
Rowan. Ash leaves are pinnate but strictly opposite.
Nature · Trees
Rowan
Deciduous · to 15 m
Sorbus aucuparia — Rosaceae
The rowan or mountain ash is a slim, hardy tree of uplands, crags and gardens, growing higher up a Scottish hillside than almost any other broadleaf. Its pinnate leaves look like an ash's but are set alternately, and its heavy bunches of scarlet berries are stripped by thrushes in autumn. It is the great tree of British protective folklore.
How to know it
How to spot them
- ▸Pinnate leaves with 9–15 toothed leaflets, set alternately along the twig — not in opposite pairs
- ▸Dense flat clusters of creamy-white flowers in May, with a slightly sour smell
- ▸Heavy drooping bunches of scarlet berries (pomes) from late summer
- ▸Smooth, shiny silvery-grey bark; buds purple-grey, hairy and pressed to the twig
- ▸Often growing from a crag, wall or hillside far above any other broadleaf
How to know it
Heavy drooping bunches of scarlet pomes stripped by blackbirds and redwings, above smooth silvery bark
Rowan.
Grows higher up a Scottish hillside than almost any other broadleaf, often straight out of a crag
Rowan — hence the alternative name mountain ash.
Planted by doorways and churchyards to ward off witches; its wood made spindles and divining rods
Rowan. 'Rowan tree and red thread put the witches to their speed.'
Its specific epithet comes from the Latin for bird-catching, because fowlers baited traps with its fruit
Rowan — Sorbus aucuparia, from aucupari, to go bird-catching.
Its bitter fruit, high in pectin, makes the traditional jelly served with game
Rowan jelly.
Quick-fire facts
- •Sorbus aucuparia — aucuparia is from Latin aucupari, 'to catch birds', because fowlers used the berries as bait
- •Also called mountain ash, though it is in the rose family (Rosaceae) and unrelated to true ash
- •The berries are pomes, like tiny apples, and contain parasorbic acid; cooking makes them safe and palatable
- •Rowan jelly, set by the fruit's high pectin, is a traditional accompaniment to venison and game
- •Folklore: rowan planted by the door repels witches — 'rowan tree and red thread put the witches to their speed'
- •Each berry carries a tiny five-pointed star at the base, the pentagram that was read as a protective sign
- •It reaches higher altitude than almost any other British broadleaf, to around 1,000 m in Scotland
- •Whitebeam and wild service tree are close relatives; recent taxonomy has moved many former Sorbus species to other genera, but the rowan keeps the name
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- Woodland Trust — Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia)