Rowan: varieties and species, seedlings, growing. Rowan features

Rowan is one of the low-value fruit trees because of the characteristic bitter taste of its berries. However, being very common, it is widely used as an ornamental plant. Strong and elastic wood is also often used in carpentry.

Botanical description

Under the name of "mountain ash", species and varieties of which you will find in the article, in modern botany it is customary to understand the whole genus of low-plant wood from a large family of Pink. The number of species exceeds a hundred, and about a third of them freely grows on the territory of Russia. Rowan is widely distributed in North America, Asia and throughout Europe. This deciduous plant in the form of a shrub or tree is especially effective in the autumn period, when the leaves are painted in crimson tone, and the branches are decorated with huge bright bunches.

Use and properties of mountain ash

Rowan wood is distinguished by its elasticity and high density, which makes it possible to use it for making joinery products. A blossoming tree or shrub is an excellent honey plant.

Rowan berries are used for food, especially the development of new varieties, the fruits of which have lost a bitter taste. You can eat them fresh, canned (compotes, jams, preserves), make marmalade or pastille, dry, pickle or wet. Some properties of mountain ash, or rather its berries, are used in folk medicine. Among the useful qualities are the following: diuretic and choleretic, laxative, hemostatic, diaphoretic, antiscorbutic. From bitterness in berries helps to get rid of the first frosts. They lead to the destruction of a specific glycoside.

Ordinary rowanberry: varieties and species

The most famous and widespread species is the mountain ash. Its Latin name comes from the phrase "attracting birds." This is probably due to the fact that bright red berries remain in the bush not only in the autumn, but also practically throughout the whole winter, serving for the feathered fodder. The species is distributed around the world in a temperate climate zone. Most often this tree, less often - a shrub with a rounded crown and a height of up to 12 m, but, as a rule, only 5-10 m.

Specialists in the field of breeding share the derived varieties of mountain ash ordinary for two types: Neuzhinskaya and Moravian. The first includes hybrids of Eastern European origin, and the second - Central European. Differences are not only berries of mountain ash (according to taste, color, form), but also the plants themselves - the shape of the crown, leaves, bark, etc.

Rowan Moravian

Rowan sweet, or Moravian, is a kind of common. It was first discovered in the 19th century in Moravia in the Sudetenland region . The culture was introduced thanks to the beautiful and tasty fruit. A tree 10-12 m high at a young age has a narrow pyramidal crown, large leaves up to 25 cm long, fruits up to 1 cm in diameter. The varieties of the Central European group presented below are of the greatest interest.

Edulis

Not very high tree (10-15 m) is distinguished not only by sweet fruits, but also by its decorative appearance. The crown is narrow pyramidal, the leaves are large, not leathery, odd-pinned, they look like openwork on the side, they are painted in the autumn period in rich red and yellow shades. Flowering begins at the end of May, the inflorescence is corymbose, dense. Fruits are round-oval in shape, large with a juicy sweet-sour pulp, sharlakh-red. Rowan variety Edulis has a high winter hardiness, light-loving, but withstands a slight shade, prefers fertile and well-drained soils. Does not tolerate swampiness and excess moisture, reacts poorly to gas contamination and air pollution. It is used as a fruit crop, as well as in group alleine plantings.

Bissneri

The hybrid with a narrow compact crown shape grows to a height of 11 m. It is decorative throughout the year thanks to large beautiful pinnate leaves, small sizes and bright berries. Bitter taste of fruits is absent. Like many other varieties of rowan decorative, Bissneri is not afraid of frosts, but is sensitive to the gassed city air, swampy and heavy soils. It prefers sunny, well-lit areas, carries a light shadow.

Concentration

Another West European variety with a pyramidal shape of the crown. The leaves are large, with the underside of whitish with serrate margins. The fruits are oval-round in shape, broad-brass, color - bright orange, collected in a tight flap of 70-100 pieces, have a good taste without excess astringency and bitterness with juicy orange flesh. The variety has a high resistance to frost, disease. Prefers loose, fertile soils without stagnation of moisture, good lighting.

Nevezhinskaya rowanberry

Nevezhinskaya mountain ash is also a variety of common, and according to external signs, it can be distinguished only by an expert. As already mentioned above, berries of mountain ash have a characteristic bitter taste and become suitable for food only after the first frost. However, the Nezhin variety has a distinctive feature. Her berries are devoid of bitterness, even in an immature form, and according to the level of vitamin saturation it is comparable with lemon and black currant. The tree was not obtained by selection, but is a natural species. The history of its discovery is very interesting. The tree was found by the peasant Shchelkunov in the Andreevsky forest, which was located near the village of Nevezhino. Planting it in his garden, he did not suspect that a cold-resistant and unpretentious tree would spread all over the country. Villagers bred rowan seedlings and sold them to neighboring areas. At the moment, a large number of varieties are listed, we draw your attention to the most famous and tested.

Eastern European varieties

• Bubble is a medium-tall tree with a paniculate crown shape, large thin leaves and elongated bright orange fruits. Characterized by very high frost resistance, light-loving, undemanding to the soil, but prefers medium or light loam. Rowan variety Kubovaya has no bitter taste, moderately tart, the pulp is bright yellow, juicy. Fruits weighing 0.5 g.
• Sugar Petrova - a low tree (up to 5 m) with decorative large leaves. The variety is valued for the high content of sugars in fruits in the absence of astringency and bitterness. Frost resistant, unpretentious.
• Ogonek is an early variety of universal purpose. The plant is a medium-sized plant with straight ascending branches, located compactly. The fruits are large, weighing 1.5-1.7 g with yellow flesh, in a mature state of a red-orange hue.

Michurinsky sorts

Varieties derived by the famous domestic breeder Michurin IV, found in modern gardens can be extremely rare. At the present time, some of them are lost, others simply mingled with each other and are indistinguishable. But there is also a preserved hybrid Michurinskaya mountain ash. Sort of Titan (photo above), in particular, is still sold and bought by gardeners. It is derived by pollination of the flowers of mountain ash with pollen of pear and apple-tree. The plant is a low tree (up to 3.5 m) with a rounded shape of the crown. Large berries are harvested in powerful bunches, have a characteristic taste without bitterness and a rich dark red hue. The tree is highly resistant even to the harshest climatic conditions. Close to the grade Titan for all characteristics of the hybrids Liqueur, Pomegranate, Burka.

Do not forget that common and black chokeberry, whose varieties are also very numerous, are far from the same thing. Even if you compare the appearance of plants, you can notice significant differences. Chokeberry, or Michurin's aroma, belongs to a completely different genus - Aronia, but also to the Pink family. The species was bred in the 19th century in the Michurin nursery. This is a low shrub (up to 3 m) with large dark green leaves and spherical black (sometimes with a purple hue) fruits with seeds. It is popular as a honey, medicinal and fruit-berry culture.

Features of growing mountain ash

• Rowan is a very large tree, so it makes sense to plant seedlings along the perimeter of the site. The plant prefers well-lit places, tolerates slight shading, develops poorly in the shade, fructifies poorly.
• Virtually all varieties of mountain ash are unpretentious and undemanding to the soil, but still develop better in a light substrate, on loams. He does not like excessive moisture and waterlogging.
• All rowan (varieties do not matter) prefers autumn planting or early spring (before the beginning of growth). To harvest was abundant, it is recommended to plant several different hybrids.
• The main care for trees is the timely removal of root shoots and shoots that develop below the site of inoculation, watering (if necessary), loosening the soil and treating against pests and diseases.
• Rowan starts to grow quite early, in this connection it is expedient to carry out pruning and top dressing in compressed and early terms.
• Since the third year after planting, it is recommended to feed trees with complex mineral fertilizers in three stages: before flowering in spring, in summer during the formation of fruits and in autumn after harvesting.