The Rose Family
(Rosaceae)
Family Description
This family includes many types of Rose plants, as well as Plum, Cherry, Apple, Pear, Blackberry, Raspberry, Rowan, Strawberry and Hawthorn, to name but a few.
Rowan
(Mountain Ash)
Sorbus aucuparia
The Rowan is a small tree. It develops orange berries, which turn scarlet red.
It is often planted in gardens and parks as a decorative tree.
Open woodland, or on the edges of woodlands.
Mountains, up to 900 metres. Ledges of mountain sides (having been taken there by birds, when just a seed).
Prefers sandy soils.
The bark is a silvery grey and smooth.
The leaves are pinnate.
The leaflets are dark green, hairy beneath and have jagged edges.
It has hairy brown buds.
The Rowan has small flowers, which grow in creamy white bunches. The flowers are scented to attract insects, which transfer pollen from plant to plant.
Birds eat the red berries. Most of the seeds within pass through the bird's digestive system unharmed and are excreted by the bird, to grow on new ground.
Seasonal
The flowers open in May and ripen to berries by July. The berries can remain on the Rowan for months and attract birds in the autumn.
Geographical
Widespread in Britain, mainly in the uplands.
A fourteenth century poem describes the Rowan as a beautiful tree: "Glen of the Rowan trees with scarlet berries, With fruit praised by every flock of birds, A slumbrous paradise for every badger In their quiet burrows with their young."
In some places, the Rowan was thought to have stopped the dead from rising. For this reason, it was planted in graveyards in Yorkshire and in Wales; and in Scotland it was built into coffins.
The Rowan used to be known as "the Salvation
of Thor".
The story goes that Thor (the God of Thunder) while on his way to visit the land of giants, had to cross a large fast-flowing river. Thor helped himself to safety by grabbing onto a Rowan tree.
