Sorbus Leonard Messel - Mountain Ash

<strong><a href="https://en.promessedefleurs.eu/shrubs/shrubs-by-variety/sorbus-mountain-ash.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rowans, <em>Sorbus</em> in Latin</a>, are easy-to-grow bushes that thrive in well-defined winters</strong>. They are renowned for their <strong>hard and dense wood</strong> as well as their <strong>decorative fruits</strong>, which are especially favoured by birds. The <a href="https://www.promessedefleurs.com/arbustes/arbustes-par-variete/sorbiers/sorbus-aucuparia-sorbier-des-oiseleurs-en-racines-nues-p-2868.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mountain ash</a> or rowan is highly regarded for both its ornamental role and its ecological function. Sorbus aucuparia forms a small tree with a graceful, well-balanced rounded silhouette, featuring feathery leaves that turn golden yellow in autumn and is abundant with small vermilion berries from July to December. Hunters used these berries as bait to attract thrushes, hence its other name "thrush tree". The domestic rowan, on the other hand, is often planted near houses because its fruits, known as corms or sorbs, which resemble small pears (2.5 cm long) or reddish-brown apples, have a sweet taste when over-ripe (brown), making excellent jams and syrups. <strong>While the mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia) fears drought and prefers cool climates, - it can be found as far as Iceland and the boreal Asia - the domestic rowan (Sorbus domestica) enjoys the warmth of southern Europe and can be found as far as North Africa.</strong> The latter is valued for the quality of its timber, just like the service tree (Sorbus torminalis), another native species familiar to the forests of the eastern Paris Basin, Centre, and Poitou-Charente, whose distribution area extends to the Caucasus and the Middle East. <strong>Rowans are hardy trees, tolerating frosts of up to -25°C on average, </strong><strong>easy to grow</strong>, <strong>very floriferous</strong>, and <strong>require no care</strong>. They exhibit rapid growth during the first 20 years, which then slows down. The introduction of new cultivars and Asian species offers a variety of forms and exceptional berry colours that deserve more frequent use in landscaping. The only precaution is to plant them away from a terrace or a tarmacked path due to the mess caused by the quantity of fruits and their appeal to birds. [caption id="attachment_46795" align="aligncenter" width="1172"]<img class="size-full wp-image-46795" src="https://www.promessedefleurs.com/blogwp/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Sorbus-aucuparia2.jpg" alt="Mountain ash" width="1172" height="780" /> Flowering and foliage of Sorbus aucuparia.[/caption]