Rowan tree (mountain ash): how to identify it

Rowan through the year

• Spring: leaves open in April; buds are purple and hairy before that.
• Late spring: flat heads of scented cream flowers in May or early June, visited by flies, bees and beetles.
• Late summer: red berries ripen in August or early September. Trees for Life notes that in mild climates rowan fruits every year, but in harsh places such as Glen Affric fruiting is irregular, with heavy crops every few years.
• Autumn: leaves turn orange-red. Thrushes, including redwings and fieldfares arriving in September and October, take the berries; blackbirds are key seed dispersers.
• Winter: smooth grey bark, upward-pointing branches and hairy purple buds.

Trees for Life adds that rowan starts producing seed at around 15 years old, and that its seeds need a cold spell before they germinate, usually in the first or second spring.

Where rowan grows

Rowan grows across most of Europe and North Africa and through central and northern Asia into northern China. In Britain it grows in most areas but is commonest in the north and west, and the Woodland Trust singles out the Scottish Highlands. It climbs higher than any other tree in Scotland: Trees for Life records it at almost 1,000 m in parts of the Highlands, where it survives as small, stunted saplings. That liking for high ground, together with ash-like leaves, gave it the name mountain ash, though the Woodland Trust stresses that the two trees are not related.

Its size depends on where it grows. Trees for Life gives a usual maximum of 10–15 m, occasionally about 20 m, and notes that grazing deer often leave it with several stems. The Woodland Trust gives a lifespan of up to 200 years. Rowan is also widely planted as a street and garden tree, so you will meet it in towns far from any hill.

Rowan vs ash and elder

The Woodland Trust lists ash and elder as rowan's look-alikes, because all three have pinnate leaves. Its key mark is the leaflets: rowan's are serrated and more or less pointed at the end. Two more checks help: rowan's leaves alternate along the twig, and from August its flower heads turn into bunches of red berries. Our ash page gives ash's own marks, from its branching to its seeds, so you can compare the two side by side.

For the other trees with red fruit in Britain and North America, from holly to hawthorn, see trees with red berries.

Mountain-ash in North America

North America has two native mountain-ashes, and European rowan is planted alongside them.

American mountain-ash (Sorbus americana). NC State Extension's plant profile describes a small tree 4.5–10.5 m (15–35 ft) tall, native to northeastern North America from Newfoundland to Georgia; in North Carolina it grows mostly in the mountains. Leaves are 15–25 cm (6–10 in) long with 9 to 17 leaflets, each 5–10 cm (2–4 in). White flowers come in flat clusters in June and July, and the red-orange fruit, about 6 mm (1/4 in), ripens in September and October and can hang on into winter. It grows on moist, rich, acidic soils, in North Carolina often with spruce, fir and yellow birch.

Showy mountain-ash (Sorbus decora). Minnesota Wildflowers' species account describes a tree 3–12 m (10–40 ft) tall with 11 to 17 leaflets, red autumn leaves and bright red fruit 6–13 mm (1/4–1/2 in) across that ripens in late summer and persists through winter. In Minnesota it reaches the western edge of its US range and is common on the rocky North Shore of Lake Superior.

Telling the three apart. The same account gives the marks:

Tree Identifier's Collection, the 138-species catalogue that fills in as you identify, includes European rowan as Sorbus aucuparia; the two American mountain-ashes are not among its 138 species. For the main British trees, rowan included, see tree identification in the UK.