Rowan tree, Mountain ash

Gaelic Caorunn, Welsh Cerddin, Irish Caorthann

Sorbus aucuparia

We name solitary rowans as "flogrunn" and that are trees sown by birds, usually on other trees.
"Flogrunn" was in older times seen as a holy tree. and having magical force. When you let the young cattle out in springtime at Acunsion Day you whipped them with fresh rowan branches. And wood from a rowan was good to use in the equipment to stop devilry.

In popular speech they say that if a year is rich of rowanberries, it is presaying a cold and snowy winter. Nobody can prove this, but on the other hand you can say that the last summer was fine and dry because the flower buds are built at that time.

Nowadays they often plant rowan trees in the parks and other public places in towns and villages. That are nicely erected trees and a sight both during the time of flowering and at autumn berry time years like this year 2002 when there is such an immense lot of berries on the trees.
Rowan berries are mostly food for birds. Thrushes and waxwings cluster around the trees after the first nights of frost when the berries are frozen and have got a kind of sweetness. The birds spread the trees by their droppings.
Humans use the nice berries as decorations, but you can use them in the household too. But they are not very popular in spite of the richness of vitamin C because of the acrid taste. Then you had better put the rinsed berries in the freezer for some time before preparation, as some of the acrid substanced are transformed into more sweet ones by freezing. The best kind for household use is the cultivated form Sorbus aucuparia edulis.

In June the rowan trees are in bloom and sending out their special scent.

In September most years the trees are heavy with a great amount of flocks of the red berris

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Rowan, Mountain Ash a British page

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