Rowan

For other uses, see Rowan (disambiguation).

Old Norse reynir (c.f. Norwegian rogn, Swedish rnn),
Quicken Tree redirects here. For the racehorse, see ultimately from the Germanic verb *raud-inan to redQuicken Tree (horse).
den, in reference to the berries (as is the Latin name
sorbus). Various dialectal variants of rowan are found in
English, including ran, roan, rodan, royan, royne, round,
The rowans or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees
in genus Sorbus of family Rosaceae. They are native rune.
The Old English name of the rowan is cwic-bem, which
survives in the name quickbeam (also quicken, quickentree, and variants). This name by the 19th-century was
reinterpreted as connected to the word witch, from a dialectal variant wick for quick and names such as wickentree, wich-tree, wicky, wiggan-tree, giving rise to names
such as witch-hazel[6] and witch-tree.[7]

throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern

Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the
mountains of western China and the Himalaya, where
numerous apomictic microspecies occur.[1] The name
rowan was originally applied to the species Sorbus aucuparia, and is also used for other species in Sorbus
subgenus Sorbus.[2] Rowans are unrelated to the true
ash trees, which belong to the genus Fraxinus, family
Oleaceae, though their leaves bear supercial similarity.

The Old Irish name is cairtheand, reected in Modern

Irish caorann. The arboreal Bratharogam in the Book
of Ballymote associates the rowan with the letter luis, with
the gloss delightful to the eye (li sula) is luis, i.e. rowan
(caertheand), owing to the beauty of its berries. Due to
this, delight of the eye (vel sim.) has been reported as
a name of the rowan by some commentators.

Formerly, when a wider variety of fruits were commonly

eaten in European and North American culture, Sorbus
counted among the home fruits, though ironically Sorbus
domestica is all but extinct in Britain.[3] Natural hybrids,
often including Sorbus aucuparia and the whitebeam,
Sorbus aria, give rise to many endemic variants in the In the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and
UK.[4]
Labrador and Nova Scotia, this species is commonly referred to as a dogberry tree.[8] In German, Sorbus aucuparia is known as the Vogelbeerbaum (bird-berry-tree)
or as Eberesche. The latter is a compound of the name
1 Names
of the ash tree (Esche) with what is contemporarily the
name of the boar (Eber) but in fact the continuation of a
The traditional names of the rowan are those applied Gaulish name, eburo- (also the name for a dark reddishto the species Sorbus aucuparia, Sorbus torminalis (wild brown colour, cognate with Greek orphnos, Old Norse
service-tree), and Sorbus domestica (true service-tree). iarpr brown); like sorbus, eburo- seems to have referred
The Latin name sorbus was loaned into Old English as to the colour of the berries; it is also recorded as a Gaulsyrfe. The name service-tree for Sorbus domestica is ish name for the yew (which also has red berries), see also
derived from that name by folk etymology. The Latin Eburodunum (disambiguation). The Welsh name Criafol
name sorbus is from a root for red, reddish-brown (PIE refers to the tree as lamenting fruit, associating the red
*sor-/*ser-); English sorb is attested from the 1520s in fruit with the blood of Christ; as Welsh tradition believed
the sense fruit of the service tree, adopted via French the Cross was carved from the wood of this tree.
sorbe from Latin sorbum service-berry. Sorbus domestica is also known as Whitty Pear, the adjective whitty
meaning "pinnate". The name mountain-ash for Sorbus
domestica is due to a supercial similarity of the rowan 2 Botany
leaves to those of the ash; not to be confused in Fraxinus
ornus, a true ash that is also known as mountain ash.[5] Rowans are mostly small deciduous trees 1020 m tall,
Sorbus torminalis is also known as chequer tree"; its though a few are shrubs. The leaves are arranged alterfruits, formerly used to avour beer, being called che- nately, and are pinnate, with (7)1135 leaets; a termiquers, perhaps from the spotted pattern of the fruit.
nal leaet is always present. The owers are borne in
dense corymbs; each ower is creamy white, and 510
mm across with ve petals. The fruit is a small pome 48
mm diameter, bright orange or red in most species, but
pink, yellow or white in some Asian species. The fruit

The name rowan is recorded from 1804, detached from

an earlier rowan-tree, rountree, attested from the 1540s
in northern English and Scottish. It is from a North Germanic source (such as Middle Norwegian), derived from
1

White-fruited Rowan Sorbus glabrescens, a Chinese species with

white fruit

are soft and juicy, which makes them a very good food
for birds, particularly waxwings and thrushes, which then
distribute the rowan seeds in their droppings.[1] Due to
their small size the fruits are often referred to as berries,
but a berry is a simple fruit produced from a single ovary,
whereas a pome is an accessory fruit.

3 SELECTED SPECIES

Rowan owers

812 cm long and 2.53 cm broad. While most are trees,

the Dwarf Rowan Sorbus reducta is a low shrub to 50 cm
tall. Several of the Asian species are widely cultivated as
ornamental trees.

North American native species in the subgenus Sorbus (Sorbus) include the American mountain-ash Sorbus
americana and Showy mountain-ash Sorbus decora in the
Rowan is used as a food plant by the larvae of some east and Sitka mountain-ash Sorbus sitchensis in the west.
Lepidoptera species; see Lepidoptera that feed on Sorbus.
Numerous hybrids, mostly behaving as true species
reproducing by apomixis, occur between rowans and
whitebeams; these are variably intermediate between
their parents but generally more resemble whitebeams
and are usually grouped with them (q.v.).

3 Selected species
Sorbus alnifolia, Korean whitebeam
Sorbus amabilis
Sorbus americana, American mountain-ash
Mature European Rowan tree

The best-known species is the European Rowan Sorbus

aucuparia, a small tree typically 412 m tall growing in
a variety of habitats throughout northern Europe and in
mountains in southern Europe and southwest Asia. Its
berries are a favourite food for many birds and are a traditional wild-collected food in Britain and Scandinavia.
It is one of the hardiest European trees, occurring to 71
north in Vard in Arctic Norway, and has also become
widely naturalised in northern North America.
The greatest diversity of form as well as the largest number of Rowan species is in Asia, with very distinctive
species such as Sargents Rowan Sorbus sargentiana with
large leaves 2035 cm long and 1520 cm broad and very
large corymbs with 200500 owers, and at the other extreme, Small-leaf Rowan Sorbus microphylla with leaves

Sorbus aucuparia, European rowan

Sorbus californica
Sorbus cashmiriana, Kashmir rowan
Sorbus commixta, Japanese rowan
Sorbus decora, Showy mountain-ash
Sorbus esserteauiana, Esserteaus rowan
Sorbus fosteri
Sorbus fruticosa
Sorbus glabrescens, White-fruited rowan
Sorbus harrowiana, Harrow rowan
Sorbus hupehensis, Hubei rowan

3
Sorbus insignis

Sorbus vertesensis

Sorbus khumbuensis

Sorbus vestita

Sorbus koehneana

Sorbus vilmorinii, Vilmorins rowan

Sorbus lanata
Sorbus matsumurana
Sorbus maderensis, Madeira rowan
Sorbus microphylla, Small-leaf rowan
Sorbus oligodonta, Kite-leaf rowan
Sorbus pallescens
Sorbus pekinensis
Sorbus pinnatida
Sorbus pluripinnata
Sorbus pohuashanensis
Sorbus pontica
Sorbus poteriifolia
Sorbus prattii
Sorbus pseudovilmorinii
Sorbus pygmaea
Sorbus randaiensis
Sorbus redliana
Sorbus reducta, Dwarf rowan
Sorbus rehderiana
Sorbus retroexis
Sorbus rockii
Sorbus rotundifolia
Sorbus rufo-ferruginea

Sorbus wardii
Sorbus wilfordii

4 Uses
Rowans are excellent small ornamental trees for parks,
gardens and wildlife areas. Several of the Chinese
species, such as White-fruited rowan (Sorbus glabrescens)
are popular for their unusual fruit colour, and Sargents
rowan (Sorbus sargentiana) for its exceptionally large
clusters of fruit. Numerous cultivars have also been selected for garden use, several of them, such as the yellowfruited Sorbus 'Joseph Rock', of hybrid origin.[1] They are
very attractive to fruit-eating birds, which is reected in
the old name bird catcher.
The wood is dense and used for carving and turning and
for tool handles and walking sticks.[9] Rowan fruit are
a traditional source of tannins for mordanting vegetable
dyes.[10] In Finland, it has been a traditional wood of
choice for horse sled shafts and rake spikes.
The fruit of European Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) can be
made into a slightly bitter jelly which in Britain is traditionally eaten as an accompaniment to game, and into
jams and other preserves, on their own, or with other
fruit. The fruit can also be a substitute for coee beans,
and have many uses in alcoholic beverages: to avour
liqueurs and cordials, to produce country wine, and to
avour ale. In Austria a clear rowan schnapps is distilled
which is called by its German name Vogelbeerschnaps.
Czechs also make a Rowan liquor called jeabinka[11] and
the Welsh used to make one called diodgriafel.[12]
Rowan cultivars with superior fruit for human food use
are available but not common; mostly the fruits are gathered from wild trees growing on public lands.

Rowan fruit contains sorbic acid, an acid that takes its

name from the Latin name of the genus Sorbus. The
raw fruit also contain parasorbic acid (about 0.4%0.7%
Sorbus sargentiana, Sargents rowan
in the European rowan[13] ), which causes indigestion and
can lead to kidney damage, but heat treatment (cooking,
Sorbus scalaris, Ladder rowan
heat-drying etc.) and, to a lesser extent, freezing, neuSorbus scopulina, Greene mountain-ash (var. scop- tralises it, by changing it to the benign sorbic acid. Luckily, they are also usually too astringent to be palatable
ulina) or Cascade mountain-ash (var. cascadensis)
when raw. Collecting them after rst frost (or putting
Sorbus simonkaiana
in the freezer) cuts down on the bitter taste as well.

Sorbus rufopilosa, Tsema rowan

Sorbus sitchensis, Sitka mountain-ash

Sorbus stankovii
Sorbus taurica
Sorbus ursina

5 Mythology and folklore

The European rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) has a long tradition in European mythology and folklore. It was thought

4
to be a magical tree and give protection against malevolent beings.[14] The tree was also called wayfarers tree
or travellers tree because it supposedly prevents those
on a journey from getting lost.[15] It was said in England that this was the tree on which the Devil hanged his
mother. [16]

REFERENCES

6 See also

Sorbus subgenus Aria

Sorbus subgenus Micromeles
Sorbus subgenus Cormus
Sorbus subgenus Torminaria
British folklorists of the Victorian era reported the folk Sorbus subgenus Chamaemespilus
belief in apotropaic powers of the rowan-tree, in particular in the warding o of witches. Such a report is given
by Edwin Lees (1856) for the Wyre Forest in the English 7 References
West Midlands.[17] Sir James Frazer (1890) reported such
a tradition in Scotland, where the tree was often planted [1] Rushforth, K. (1999). Trees of Britain and Europe.
near a gate or front door.[18] According to Frazer, birds
Collins ISBN 0-00-220013-9.
droppings often contain rowan seeds, and if such droppings land in a fork or hole where old leaves have ac- [2] McAllister, H.A. 2005. The genus Sorbus: Mountain Ash
and other Rowans . Kew Publishing.
cumulated on a larger tree, such as an oak or a maple,
they may result in a rowan growing as an epiphyte on the [3] The Whitty Pear, Sorbus domestica"
larger tree. Such a rowan is called a ying rowan and
was thought of as especially potent against witches and [4] Cambridge Botanic Garden: the Genus Sorbus
their magic, and as a counter-charm against sorcery.[19]
[5] The similarities in the physical characteristics of all three
In 1891, Charles Godfrey Leland also reported traditions
types of tree [viz., Fraxinus excelsior, Fraxinus ornus and
of rowans apotropaic powers against witches in English
Sorbus aucuparia] are pervasive enough that they are confolklore, citing the Denham Tracts (collected between
fused not only in folk terminology but also in botanical
1846 and 1859).[20]
nomenclature. Richard Stoll Shannon (1975). The Arms
In Norse mythology, the goddess Sif is the wife of the
thunder god Thor. Sif has been linked with Ravdna, the
consort of the Sami thunder-god Horagalles. Red berries
of rowan were holy to Ravdna, and the name Ravdna resembles North Germanic words for the tree (for example, Old Norse reynir). According to Skldskaparml the
rowan is called the salvation of Thor because Thor once
saved himself by clinging to it. It has been theorized that
Sif was once conceived in the form of a rowan to which
Thor clung.[21]
In Newfoundland, popular folklore maintains that a heavy
crop of fruit means a hard or dicult winter. Similarly,
in Finland and Sweden, the number of fruit on the trees
was used as a predictor of the snow cover during winter,
but here the belief was that the rowan will not bear a
heavy load of fruit and a heavy load of snow in the same
year, that is, a heavy fruit crop predicted a winter with
little snow. However, as fruit production for a given summer is related to weather conditions the previous summer,
with warm, dry summers increasing the amount of stored
sugars available for subsequent ower and fruit production, it has no predictive relationship to the weather of
the next winter.[22][23] Contrary to the above, in Maalahti,
Finland the opposite was thought.[24] If the rowan owers
were plentiful then the rye harvest would also be plentiful. Similarly, if the rowan owered twice in a year there
would be many potatoes and many weddings that autumn.
And in Sipoo people are noted as having said that winter
had begun when the waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus) had
eaten the last of the rowan fruit.[25] In Sweden, it was also
thought that if the rowan trees grew pale and lost color,
the fall and winter would bring much illness.[26]

of Achilles and Homeric Compositional Technique Volume

36 of Mnemosyne, (Brill), p. 41. The English herbalist
John Gerard in 1590 apparently fell victim to just this confusion, equating ornus and quickbeam (see below).
[6] Witch-hazel is much more commonly associated with
Hamameles.
[7] Abram Smythe Palmer, Folk-etymology : a Dictionary of
Verbal Corruptions Or Words Perverted in Form Or Meaning, by False Derivation Or Mistaken Analogy (1882),
443f.
[8] Story, G. M. and Kirwin, W. J. (1990). Dictionary
of Newfoundland English. University of Toronto Press.
ISBN 0-8020-6819-7.
[9] Vedel, H., & Lange, J. (1960). Trees and Bushes in Wood
and Hedgerow. Metheun & Co. Ltd., London.
[10] Henderson, Robert K. (2000). The Neighbourhood Forager: A Guide For The Wild Food Gourmet. Toronto: Key
Porter Books. p. 68. ISBN 1-55263-306-3.
[11] Sorbier des oiseleurs
[12] Wild Food School
[13] O Raspe, C Findlay, AL Jacquemart. Sorbus aucuparia L.
The Journal of Ecology, 2000
[14] Trees for Life: Mythology and Folklore of the Rowan
[15] Eyers, Jonathan (2011). Don't Shoot the Albatross!: Nautical Myths and Superstitions. A&C Black, London, UK.
ISBN 978-1-4081-3131-2.
[16] Westwood, Jennifer (1985), Albion. A Guide to Legendary
Britain. London: Grafton Books. ISBN 0-246-11789-3.
p. 257.

[17] Edwin Lees, Pictures of nature in the silurian region

around the Malvern hills and vale of Severn, H.W. Lamb,
1856, 274f.
[18] Sir James Frazer, The Golden Bough, p620, Papermac
Edition, 1987, ISBN 0-333-43430-7
[19] Sir James Frazer, The Golden Bough, p702, Papermac
Edition, 1987, ISBN 0-333-43430-7
[20] The anti-witch rhyme used in Tweedesdale some sixty or
seventy years ago [viz. in the 1820s] was: Black-luggie,
lammer bead, rowan-tree and reed thread, put the witches
to their speed. [...] I have seen a twig of rowan-tree
[...] which had been gathered on the second of May (observe this), wound round with some dozens of yards of red
thread, placed visible in the window to act as a charm in
keeping witches and Boggle boes from the house. Charles
Godfrey Leland, Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling, 1891,
p. 198
[21] Turville-Petre, E. O. G. (1964). Myth and Religion of
the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia, p. 98.
Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
[22] Kobro, S., Sreide, L., Djnne, E., Rafoss, T., Jaastad,
G., & Witzgall, P. (2003). Masting of rowan Sorbus aucuparia L. Population Ecology 45 (1): 25-30.
[23] Raspe, O., Findlay, C., & Jacquemart, A. (2000). Sorbus
aucuparia. Journal of Ecology 88 (5): 910-930.
[24] Tillhagen, Carl-Herman. (1995). Skogarna och trden:
Naturvrd i gngna tider. Carlssons bokfrlag, Stockholm.
[25] Mannhardt, Wilhelm. (1963). Wald- und Feldkulte.
Bd. I. Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstmmes. p. 52. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft
Verlag
[26] Tillhagen, Carl-Herman. (1995). Skogarna och trden:
Naturvrd i gnga tider. Carlssons bokfrlag, Stockholm

External links
Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) in The Complete Pagan
Herbal by Anna Franklin (merciangathering.com)

9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1

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Rowan Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan?oldid=633078947 Contributors: Hajhouse, Rmhermen, Gabbe, Angela, Julesd, Salsa
Shark, IMSoP, Cimon Avaro, Jonik, Ehn, Dcoetzee, Dysprosia, Peregrine981, Marshman, Imc, Morwen, SEWilco, Bevo, Khym Chanur,
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Nandesuka, Eubot, Tagesk, Gdrbot, Bgwhite, The Rambling Man, Ecemaml, RussBot, Stephenb, CambridgeBayWeather, Curtis Clark,
Complainer, Bloodofox, Rmky87, Silverchemist, Jkelly, Mike Selinker, Orcaborealis, Mais oui!, JDspeeder1, Bibliomaniac15, SmackBot,
Dappelquist, RlyehRising, Bluebot, Rkitko, Dr bab, Gruzd, Nap, Bruce Marlin, Addshore, Abrahami, 4hodmt, ThurnerRupert, DavidCooke, Kevmin, Headzred, Kevin W., JForget, Lavateraguy, Orderinchaos, Baskaufs, Fordmadoxfraud, Icek, Themightyquill, Cydebot,
Gogo Dodo, Jguard18, Olegivvit, Rosser1954, Pepperbeast, Oliver202, Poe Joe, Visik, Mentisto, AntiVandalBot, Ririana, Luna Santin,
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Matter, Smundy, WikHead, Giord Watkins, Landon1980, Proxima Centauri, Grubel, MauriceM3, Glane23, Issyl0, ZX81, Yobot, 2D,
AnomieBOT, Cottonapple4, Ferox Seneca, Hamamelis, Dger, Micromesistius, Calmer Waters, Fearfackta, Train-Uchiha, Uniwizard83,
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Whisper, Mogism, Lugia2453, Krakkos, DeviantSerpent, Alyshkalia, Eugen Hamerle, Tortie tude and Anonymous: 158

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