Rowan: Plant profile
Common names
Rowan, Rowanberry, Mountain Ash, European Mountain Ash,, Quickbeam, Witch Wiggin Tree, Keirn, Cuirn, Caorthann
Botanical name
Sorbus aucuparia
Plant family
Rosaceae (Rose)
Distribution
Native to most of Europe, part of Asia and northern Africa. Common throughout the UK and Ireland.
Where to find Rowan
Urban areas, forest edges and rocky hills.
When to find Rowan
Flowers late spring to early summer and berries early to mid-autumn.
How to identify Rowan
Rowan is a small deciduous tree growing to 15 m. The bark is smooth, shiny and silvery grey in colour.The leaves are serrated, composed of five to eight pairs of stretched oval leaflets with one terminal leaf (ocasionally two). The flowers are small, have five petals, are creamy white in colour and arranged in dense clusters. The fruit mature in those clusters into round berries, bright orange (or red, even yellow) in colour.
Rowan lookalikes
Other Rowan species (Sorbus sp.) have similarities, such as the Service Tree (Sorbus domestica), which have bigger fruit and Whitebeam (Sorbus aria), which has resemblant berries but leaves are completely different.
Elder (Sambucus nigra) may also be confused with Rowan by the flowers, but it usually has a number of canes rather than one solid trunk and the berries are purplish-black rather than orange.
Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) has similar leaf arrangement but its leaflets are not particularly serrated and it produces winged seeds (ash keys) instead of berries.
All about Rowan
Our native Rowan trees play an important role in popular folklore and superstition, much related to witchcraft. It’s said crosses made of Rowan wood were tied with a red thread on May eve to be protected against witches.
This small deciduous tree is generally growing singly in forest edges and rocky hills, sometimes at higher elevations than any other native tree. The tree is also an appreciated ornamental and planted in urban areas.
Rowan trees bear clusters of vivid red berries in abundance, quite easy to spot from a distance.
Culinary uses and recipes with Rowan
Rowan is a bit niche. These berries are naturally bitter, but cooking them with sugar tames the flavour. They are traditionally paired with crab apples and used to make jelly to accompany meats and cheese, as they are high in pectin.
The flowers are also edible, quite aromatic and can be infused into drinks.
Medicinal properties of Rowan
Rowan berries are an astringent, a laxative and a good source of vitamins C and A.
Safe foraging of Rowan
The seeds are believed to contain hydrogen cyanide so should not be eaten.
Rowan must be cooked as raw berries will cause stomach upsets, but once cooked are perfectly fine.
Ecological importance of Rowan
The flowers are a food source for pollinating insects.
The berries are eaten by apple fruit moth caterpillars and small birds, such as lblackbirds and thrushes.
The leaves feed the larvae of moths and butterflies, such as the autumn green carpet and the larger Welsh wave.
8 thoughts on “Rowan”
Thank you for the lovely information on the Rowan tree. The berries are out now and I have made a jam with jam sugar. I am wondering what I can do with the flowers. In the summer I made elderflower cordial and it was tasty. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Hi Elisia,
Rowan flowers are best infused in vodka or made into syrup or cordial.
Rowan berries are all out (UK, north east) and we have some which are bright orange and bright red, is it too early to harvest them for jelly?
Hi Jules,
As long as they are ripe, they are fine to use right now.
Hi! Thank you for the info! I just found these by the river, close where I live in Denmark, and I was wondering if they were useful for humans. I’m from South America so nature here is pretty new and mysterious to me.
Hola Mariana,
Rowan is indeed a common tree in Denmark, where it’s known as “røn”
South Africa’s Rowan or Mountain Ash berries are underdeveloped and unused. In facr they lie to waster necauae theor qualities jave nkt entered wred rhe culinary debate.
I would like tk introduce them bit tje market has not been tested.
How are they doing in the UK?
Hi Jabulani,
There is no market in the UK at all