Ashberry ordinary: description, property, distribution area. Rowan's life expectancy

Everyone knows the mountain ash, a tree, without which it is difficult to imagine the front garden at the house, the shady corner of the park, the avenue on the city boulevard. However, the duration of life of mountain ash, along with the features of its growth, as well as the useful and medicinal properties of this plant for many are still a secret.

Description of mountain ash

The first word in the Latin name of mountain ash - Sorbus aucuparia - means "bird". However, in our language so called another botanical form. Therefore, in order to avoid confusion, the Russian name of this plant is not a literal translation of Latin.

Withering, godroshnik, vispina, korobehiha, yodik, peas, grouse - so in a folk way in different localities it is called mountain ash. The tree has known this since ancient times. It was mentioned in the works of ancient scholars, in particular Virgil and Pliny. Its fruits are edible and in the past were used for food.

Rowan is a bush or a low tree with a height of four to fifteen meters. The bark of its trunk, as a rule, is brownish-gray (in young shoots it is light gray). Leaves are odd-pinnate, they reach a length of twenty centimeters in length. The individual plates, of which the complex sheet consists , are oblong and have sharp denticles along the edges.

Inflorescences of mountain ash - small scutes (up to ten centimeters across), flowers are white. Fruits are round, up to one and a half centimeters in diameter, bitter or tart to taste. Usually they are bright red, but sometimes the color may be yellowish or orange. They ripen, depending on the place of growth of mountain ash, mainly from September to October (less often - November).

Distribution area

Rowan belongs to frost-resistant plants. It is widely distributed in the northern part of Europe and Asia. It is known that the places where rowan grows are sometimes found even beyond the Arctic Circle.

In the wild, these trees, as a rule, grow singly or in small groups. Favorite habitats are the slopes of ravines, glades and forest edges. Rowan prefers sod-podzolic and medium loamy soils. On poor and sandy soils, it grows poorly. Science has also proven that the life of rowan is longer with high humidity.

In large quantities the mountain ash grows in Byelorussia, Ukraine (Galicia, Polesie), and also in the European part of Russia. In the Baltic countries, Scandinavian countries, the Far East and Siberia, there are other species of this plant.

Peculiarities of rowan growth

During germination cotyledons are carried to the surface. They usually live from fifty to eighty days. Rowan grows earlier than the apple or pear tree, but it blossoms a week later than they do.

In the first year of life shoots of rowan grow slowly, and from the second to the third year of shoots begin to grow intensively. In young trees, crowns often have a pyramidal shape, which later changes to rounded under the weight of foliage and fruit. The majority of species of mountain ash is dominated by apical growth.

Under the canopy of the forest, the life of the mountain ash is shortened. These trees grow best and more abundantly in well-lit areas with moderate humidity.

How many lives of rowan

In comparison with other deciduous trees this plant is not considered a long-liver. On average, the life expectancy of mountain ash in nature is eighty - one hundred years. Sometimes the age of individual specimens reaches up to one hundred and fifty, and sometimes even up to two hundred years, but these are exceptional cases.

Less than a mountain ash, lives only alder (fifty to seventy years) and domestic plums (up to sixty years).

Beneficial features

The fruits of ordinary ashberry are recognized not only folk, but also official medicine. In this product, high levels of vitamins (especially A and C), its diuretic and hemostatic actions are also known.

After the first autumn frost, ripened berries of mountain ash lose bitterness, acquiring a sweetish taste. On the day of Peter and Paul - "Ryabinniki", celebrated on September 23, our ancestors harvested a medicinal rowan kvass, considered an excellent laxative and cooling agent, and also helping to treat various inflammations. From berries cooked compotes and made infusions, which were then used to treat colds, atherosclerosis, rheumatism, heart failure.

Tea from flowers and berries of mountain ash with the addition of mint - a good remedy for overwork.

Residents of the northern regions and today often eat rowan berries in their raw form, and also dry them, soak and scum. From this berry you get very tasty jam, pastille, marmalade, jelly and jam.

It is also known that the fruits and vegetables, which, when stored in basements, were transferred with rowan leaves, are kept much longer and better.

Folk features associated with rowan

Knowing how many lives of mountain ash, where it grows and what medicinal qualities it possesses, it is possible to complete its brief description with some folk signs that have been associated with it from time immemorial.

It was believed that the late blossoming of mountain ash portends a long autumn. And if the leaves on this tree turned yellow early, you should wait for early autumn and cold winter.

Roy bees, buzzing around the flowering rowan, predicted a clear, fine next day.

When in the forest on these trees they saw a big harvest of berries, they believed that in the fall there would be rains, and in winter - a lot of snow and cold. If the mountain ash is bad, then autumn is destined to be dry.

If the clusters of mountain ash were early covered with hoarfrost, they believed that it was necessary to prepare for a long winter.

However, scientists note that these days, not all of the above enumerations are valid.