Rowan Tree

["Neil St. Clair" <neilcalyx@ns.sympatico.ca>]

For Sally,

>From The American Home Garden Book and Plant Encyclopedia by the
editors and staff of The American Home:

1.  MALUS - The Apples.  Though botanists now place apples into the
genus malus separate from pyrus, the malus species have been retained
here in pyrus, which see.

2.  PYRUS - The crabapples have been retained here rather than put into
malus; a survey of American catalogs shows more so listed. However,
botanically, they belong in malus.  Pears, however, remain in the genus
pyrus.

3.  SORBUS americana - American Mountain Ash, American Rowan Tree. z.
3-7b.  Deciduaoutree to 30 feet. Smooth bark, compound leaves.  White4
flowers in terminal clusters. May-June.  Bright orange-red fruits, like
miniature apples, avidly eaten by birds.  Best on slightly acid soil.

4.  SORBUS aucuparia. European Mountain Ash, Rowan Tree, Service Tree.
z-3-8a.  Deciduous tree to 50 feet.  Much like the American species, but
larger, and with many interesting horticultural varieties, such as one
used for preserves, one with penulous branches and one with golden
fruit.

    From the 1949 Yearbook of Agriculture - United States Department of
Agriculture:
Mountain Ash - European - Sorbus aucuparia

As a bit of trivia -  this book tells us that in the library of the
Departmentof Agriculture there are over 11,350 publications about trees
& forests.

I  tried to grow one of these trees some years ago ago but the deer kept
eating the buds even knocking down the snow fence that I erected - I
gave up.  A  friend near here has an entire row of them which keep
re-seeding themselves. I do not know whether American or European.

Neil (Nova Scotia)

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