Sorbus aucuparia

Rowan grows best on dry, nutrient-rich grounds. It is found on sandy, loamy and peaty soils and is very resistant to frost. That's why rowan was one of the first woody plants to grow again in the Netherlands after the glacial period. Because of its tolerance to cold, it also grows well at high altitudes. Rowan is very popular among thrush, which explains why its name in other languages often refers to a bird. Many migrating birds on the Wadden Islands, such as fieldfares and redwings, forage in the autumn especially off of the berries of rowan, sea buckthorn and wild cherry. In various European countries, rowan berries are made into marmelade, used as a surrogate coffee bean or added to alchoholic drinks for flavor.

Seed production begins when the tree is about 15 years old. Flowers blossom in May or early June, attracting pollinating insects, including many species of flies, bees and beetles. In mild climates rowan will fruit each year, but in harsher environments, like Glen Affric in Scotland, fruiting is irregular. The berries, which ripen to a bright red colour in August, provide a soft and juicy food for birds such as chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs), siskins (Carduelis spinus), and blackbirds (Turdus merula), which then distribute the seeds in their droppings. Cold weather is required to crack and break down the tough coat of the rowan seed, and germination usually takes place in the first or second spring after the berries have been produced. Rowan trees can live up to an impressive 100 years or more (2).

Rowan is one of the most familiar wild trees in the British Isles, recognised for its distinctive red berries, which inject a splash of colour into the landscape from mid summer through to late autumn (4). Rowan is a typically small and slender tree with a greyish-brown bark. The leaves are made up of matched pairs of leaflets on either side of a stem, with a terminal leaflet at the end. A deciduous tree, rowan sprouts new leaves in April, which later turn a stunning bright orange-red colour in autumn before being shed. The dense clusters of creamy-white flowers that blossom in spring possess a distinctive strong, sweet scent (2). Rowan has received an assortment of common names, but easily the most deceptive is that of “mountain ash”, which incorrectly implies that it is a species of ash (Fraxinus). Rowan is in fact a member of the rose family (Rosaceae), and this misleading name has arisen only due to a superficial similarity in leaf shape of the two trees and an overlapping range (5).

Rowan is most commonly found in the west and north of Britain but is native throughout Britain and Ireland, as well as Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor (6).

European Mountain Ash is a non-native tree that has naturalized in NE Illinois (see Distribution Map). Outside of cultivation, it is uncommon. This species was introduced to North America from Eurasia as an ornamental landscape tree. Within the state, habitats consist of swamps, bogs, fens, and roadsides. In Eurasia, this tree is often found in mountainous areas with acidic bedrock (e.g., granite).

This hardy tree inhabits cool to cold climates (7). It is able to grow at the most northerly limit of trees in Europe, at latitude 70° north, and is recorded at elevations of up to 2,000m in France (2). Rowan prefers well-drained, peaty soils (7) but is adaptable; in Scotland it is often found in inaccessible locations such as cliffs, steep stream-sides and on top of large boulders, where it is able to grow out of reach of herbivores like red deer (Cervus elaphus) (2).

Foodplant / internal feeder
larva of Anomoia purmunda feeds within fruit of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: Other: uncertain

Foodplant / feeds on
larva of Anthonomus conspersus feeds on Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / pathogen
Armillaria mellea s.l. infects and damages Sorbus aucuparia

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Basidioradulum radula is saprobic on old, dead, fallen trunk of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Botryobasidium ellipsosporum is saprobic on decayed wood of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / feeds on
adult of Bruchus loti feeds on pollen? of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: (1-)summer(-12)

Foodplant / open feeder
epiphyllous larva of Caliroa cerasi grazes on leaf of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: 6-9

Foodplant / saprobe
gregarious, erumpent stroma of Cytospora coelomycetous anamorph of Cytospora microspora is saprobic on twig of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
not crowded, pustular to subdepressed, covered, then disc erumpent, dingy then blackish, plurilocular stroma of Cytospora coelomycetous anamorph of Cytospora rubescens f. sorbi is saprobic on dead bark of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: major host/prey

Foodplant / saprobe
bracket of Daedaleopsis confragosa is saprobic on dead wood of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / open feeder
flattened larva of Dineura testaceipes grazes on leaf (upperside) of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: sole host/prey

Foodplant / saprobe
often stromatic pycnidium of Dothiorella coelomycetous anamorph of Dothiorella pyrenophora var. pyrenophora is saprobic on dead branch of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: 3-4

Foodplant / false gall
Dysaphis sorbi causes swelling of incurled, with tightly bunched leaflets leaf of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
loosely aggregated, raising the epidermis and bursting through, conico-truncate, (pseudo?)plurilocular. stroma of Fusicoccum coelomycetous anamorph of Fusicoccum aucupariae is saprobic on dead branch (small) of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: 6

Foodplant / feeds on
Gonioctena pallida feeds on Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Gymnopilus junonius is saprobic on decayed wood of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: major host/prey

Foodplant / parasite
pycnium of Gymnosporangium cornutum parasitises live leaf of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Hapalopilus nidulans is saprobic on dead, decayed wood of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Hohenbuehelia atrocaerulea is saprobic on dead, decayed wood of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Hohenbuehelia fluxilis is saprobic on dead wood of Sorbus aucuparia

Plant / resting place / within
ovum of Hoplocampa alpina may be found in ovary of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: sole host/prey

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Hyphoderma pallidum is saprobic on dead, decayed wood of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / saprobe
caespitose fruitbody of Kuehneromyces mutabilis is saprobic on decayed, dead stump (large) of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / hemiparasite
Melampyrum sylvaticum is hemiparasitic on root of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
imperfect, loosely gregarious, erumpent pycnidium of Micropera coelomycetous anamorph of Micropera sorbi is saprobic on bark (twig) of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: 6

Foodplant / pathogen
Nectria galligena infects and damages cankered branch of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / parasite
hypophyllous telium of Ochropsora ariae parasitises live leaf of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: major host/prey

Foodplant / feeds on
adult of Orsodacne cerasi feeds on anther of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: 4-9

Foodplant / parasite
fruitbody of Oxyporus populinus parasitises live wood of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / web feeder
hypophyllous, colonial Panonychus ulmi feeds from web on live leaf of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: 4-

Foodplant / spot causer
synnema of Phacellium anamorph of Phacellium sorbi causes spots on live leaf of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Phanerochaete velutina is saprobic on dead, decayed wood of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Pholiota squarrosa is saprobic on relatively freshly cut, white rotted stump of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
gregarious, covered then bursting through pycnidium of Phomopsis coelomycetous anamorph of Phomopsis sorbicola is saprobic on dead twig of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: 6

Foodplant / spot causer
epiphyllous, few, mainly central in spot pycnidium of Phyllosticta coelomycetous anamorph of Phyllosticta sorbi causes spots on fading leaf of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: 9-11

Foodplant / parasite
epiphyllous, grouped, sterile pycnidium of Phyllosticta coelomycetous anamorph of Phyllosticta sorbicola parasitises leaf of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Pleurotus cornucopiae is saprobic on dead, decayed trunk (large) of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: summer
Other: unusual host/prey

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Pleurotus dryinus is saprobic on live, standing trunk of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Pleurotus pulmonarius is saprobic on dead wood of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: unusual host/prey

Foodplant / parasite
Podosphaera clandestina var. aucupariae parasitises Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Polyporus ciliatus is saprobic on dead, decayed wood of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: summer
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Polyporus leptocephalus is saprobic on dead, decayed stump (large) of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Polyporus melanopus is saprobic on dead, decayed root of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / open feeder
larva of Priophorus brullei grazes on leaf of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / open feeder
colonial larva of Pristiphora geniculata grazes on leaf of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: sole host/prey

Foodplant / saprobe
densely gregarious, immersed, raising then erumpent and superficial, black and somewhat shining pycndium of Rhabdospora coelomycetous anamorph of Rhabdospora inaequalis is saprobic on bark (smooth) of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: 3

Foodplant / internal feeder
larva of Rhynchites aequatus feeds within fruit of Sorbus aucuparia

Plant / associate
imago of Rhynchites cupreus is associated with Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / gall
Sappaphis sorbi causes gall of leaf of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: sole host/prey

Foodplant / spot causer
mostly hypophyllous, blackish, densely aggregated in clusters and around leaf margin pycnidium of Septoria coelomycetous anamorph of Septoria sorbi causes spots on fading leaf of Sorbus aucuparia
Remarks: season: 6-7

Foodplant / saprobe
effuse colony of Septosporium dematiaceous anamorph of Septosporium bulbotrichum is saprobic on bark (inner) of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / saprobe
fruitbody of Steccherinum fimbriatum is saprobic on dead, fallen, decayed wood of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / open feeder
nocturnal larva of Tenthredo fagi grazes on leaf of Sorbus aucuparia

Foodplant / open feeder
larva of Trichiosoma sorbi grazes on leaf of Sorbus aucuparia
Other: sole host/prey

Foodplant / hemiparasite
haustorium of Viscum album is hemiparasitic on branch of Sorbus aucuparia

The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 13
Specimens with Barcodes: 27
Species With Barcodes: 1

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Classified as Least Concern (LC) in the British Red Data Book, indicating that rowan is widespread and abundant (3).

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: NNA - Not Applicable

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNA - Not Applicable

This species is not currently threatened.

Conservation action is not required for this species at present.

 The preference is full to partial sun, moist to dry-mesic conditions, and cool to warm summer temperatures. The soil can contain clay-loam, loam, peat, or rocky soil; its pH should be somewhat acidic. This tree has excellent winter hardiness; it develops slowly and is relatively short-lived.