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Unusual & Old Fashioned Fruit Trees |
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Rowan Or Mountain
Ash – Sorbus Aucuparia
The berries of the Rowan are not pleasant to eat and have astringent properties. As such they were sometimes used in olden days to treat mild cases of diarrhoea, but too many can cause constipation. Rowan berries can be boiled up and quite safely used to make a jelly or jam. Rowan jelly used to be a firm favourite of country housewives in earlier times, but has been almost completely forgotten and is very rarely made by anybody these days.
Several varieties of Rowans can be
bought these days from tree nurseries including a yellow berried one,
and a close relative, the white berried Sorbus Hupehensis is sometimes
seen. Another close relative is the Service Tree
or Sorbus Torminallis. Trees take water and minerals from the soil often exuding unwanted toxins in their fruit as a means of deterring animals from eating too much of it and thereby ensuring a wider dispersal of the seeds in the fruit. It is well known that Almond nuts can contain small trace quantities of Cyanide if the trees are grown in unsuitable soil. Other trees such as the Rowan store unwanted chemicals in their timber making it slightly toxic and therefore not the best of timber to put through the garden shredder when trees are pruned. |
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In years gone by people lived off
the land and were use used to gathering what fruit they could from the
hedgerows. Today people still occasionally pick Blackberries from hedges
down the sides of fields and little else, but there are many other
naturally occurring berries, fruit and nuts that can be eaten that have
long been forgotten.
The native Rowan is a smallish tree that has highly perfumed clusters of
small white flowers followed by numerous bright red berries hanging in
small clumps and as such makes a splendid decorative tree for gardens.
Rowans are also frequently seen in towns and in parks where blackbirds
in particular can be seen gorging themselves on their berries as Winter
arrives.