The tree species Sorbus americana is commonly known as the American mountain-ash.
The American mountain-ash and related species (most often the European mountain-ash, Sorbus aucuparia) are also referred to as rowan trees.
Description
Sorbus americana is a relatively small tree, reaching in height.
The American mountain-ash attains its largest specimens on the northern shores of
Lake Huron and
Lake Superior.
It resembles the European mountain-ash, Sorbus aucuparia.
- Bark
- Light gray, smooth, surface scaly. downy at first, later become smooth, brown tinged with red, lenticular, finally they become darker and the papery outer layer becomes easily separable.
- Wood
- Pale brown; light, soft, close-grained but weak. Specific gravity, 0.5451; weight of cu. ft., 33.97 lbs.
- Winter
- Dark red, acute, one-fourth to three-quarters of an inch long. Inner scales are very tomentose and enlarge with the growing shoot.
- Leaves
- Alternate, compound leaf, odd-pinnate, long, with slender, grooved, dark green or red petiole. Leaflets 13 to 17, lanceolate or long oval, two to three inches long, one-half to two-thirds broad, unequally wedge-shaped or rounded at base, serrate, acuminate, sessile, the terminal one sometimes borne on a stalk half an inch long, feather-veined, midrib prominent beneath, grooved above. They come out of the bud downy, conduplicate; when full grown are smooth, dark yellow green above and paler beneath. In autumn they turn a clear yellow. leaf-like, caducous.
- Flowers
- May, June, after the leaves are full grown. Perfect, white, one-eighth of an inch across, borne in flat compound cymes three or four inches across. and acute, minute, caducous.
- Calyx
- Urn-shaped, hairy, five-lobed; lobes, short, acute, imbricate in bud.
- Corolla
- five, creamy white, orbicular, contracted into short claws, inserted on calyx, imbricate in bud.
- Twenty to thirty, inserted on calyx tube; filaments thread-like; anthers introrse, two-celled; cells opening longitudinally.
- Pistil
- Two to three inserted in the bottom of the calyx tube and united into an inferior ovary. Styles two to three; stigmas capitate; two in each cell.
- Fruit
- Berry-like pome, globular, one-quarter of an inch across, bright red, borne in cymous clusters. Ripens in October and remains on the tree all winter. Flesh thin and sour, charged with malic acid; seeds light brown, oblong, compressed; fleshy.
Distribution
Native to eastern North America;
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Eastern Canada – New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec
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Northeastern United States
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North-Central United States – Illinois n., Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin. Listed as endangered by the State of Illinois
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Southeastern United States – Appalachian Mountains, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia
Biota
The berries of American mountain-ash are eaten by numerous species of birds, including ruffed grouse, ptarmigans, sharp-tailed grouse, blue grouse, American robins, other thrushes, waxwings, jays, and small mammals, such as squirrels and rodents.
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American mountain-ash is a preferred browse for moose and white-tailed deer. Moose will eat foliage, twigs, and bark. Up to 80 percent of American mountain-ash stems were browsed by moose in control plots adjacent to exclosures on Isle Royale. Fishers, martens, snowshoe hares, and ruffed grouse also browse American mountain-ash.
Cultivation
Sorbus americana is cultivated as an ornamental tree, for use in gardens and parks. It prefers a rich moist soil and the borders of swamps, but will flourish on rocky hillsides.
A cultivar is the red cascade mountain-ash, or Sorbus americana 'Dwarfcrown'. It is planted in gardens, and as a street tree.
Uses
After their first winter freeze, the fruits are edible raw or cooked. They can be used to make pie and jelly.
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