Friday, 8:00 AM. 46 degrees, wind ENE, light to moderate. The barometer is down, predicting rain. It has rained intermittently through the night and early morning, perhaps one-half inch. Fog obscures the channel and the Island. We needed the rain.The mountain ash are coming into bloom. The most common species, both in landscapes and escaped into the woods here, is the European mountain ash, Sorbus aucuparia. The American mountain ash, S. americana, is native to the boreal forest, which we have remnants of here. It is more shrub-like. It may be found close to the lake, maybe on the islands, and more likely in the Upper Peninsula. These trees are called “ash” because of their compound leaves, but they are not related to the Fraxinus genus. There is also an Asian species and a few horticultural varieties, notably ‘Decora’, found in the nursery trade. All are very decorative in bloom and fruit, the European with orange berries, the American with red. They all have good, but not spectacular, fall color. The European is more tolerant of landscape conditions, so is more often planted, but S. americana certainly has its place. They can be hard to tell apart especially when young, but the American mountain ash has sticky dormant buds, the European has dry, wooly buds and blunt-tipped leaflets. Birds love the berries of all of them.
These are not long-lived plants, perhaps twenty years, so should be used as accents in the landscape, not as anchors. They have some other problems, including fire-blight, and are prone to trunk damage by sapsuckers and yellow-shafted flickers, but all-in-all these are wonderful trees and shrubs, just don’t expect a long and trouble-free association with them. Think of them as you would a high-school sweetheart; fun and memorable, but probably not a life-long companion
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