MOUNTAIN ASH BERRIES ARE RIPENING

MOUNTAIN ASH WITH RIPENING BERRIES...

...CLUSTER OF RIPENING BERRIES AND FEATHER-COMPOUND LEAVES

Sunday, 9:00 AM.  58 degrees F, wind N, light to moderate gusts.  The sky is mostly overcast with some rain clouds, after .24" of rain in a thunderstorm last night (Buddy was not happy).  The humidity is 85% and the barometer is on the rise, currently at 29.59".  We went to the beach early where last night's storm left a lot of evidence.
   Summer is waning when the mountain ash berries begin to ripen.  There are two species of mountain ash native to northern North America;  Sorbus americana and Sorbus decora, in the Rose (Rosaceae) Family, and several sub-species.  Both grow natively in northern Wisconsin and are extensively used in landscaping.  The European mountain ash,  or rowan tree, S aucuparia, is also an escapee here from horticulture.  All are very similar in appearance, all are small trees, all are very decorative in the landscape.  Americana and aucuparia have orange berries, and decora berries are a deep red when fully ripe.  The berries of all species are edible but I find them quite bland, even bitter, but they are excellent food for birds, as they stay on the trees all winter.  There are a number of crosses of European mountain ash with other edible fruits such as hawthorn and chokeberry that are hardy and edible but I have no further knowledge of them; much of this hybridization was done in Russia in the last century..
   The easiest way to tell American from European mountain ash that I know of is that americana has gummy dormant winter buds.  There are also differences in leaflet structure.  The Korean mountain ash is a very beautiful tree, somewhat larger than the other species.  Its berries are pinkish orange, and it has simple rather than compound leaves.
   Mountain ash are so-called because most species have pinnately compound leaves, somewhat similar in appearance to leaves of the true ash, which is in the Olive Family.  The two species are not related, and mountain ash is not attacked by the Emerald Ash Borer.