Everyone knows the mountain ash - tree, without which it is hard to imagine the front garden of the house, a shady corner of the park, alley on the city boulevard.However, the life expectancy of a mountain ash, along with the features of its growth, as well as useful and medicinal properties of this plant for many remain a secret.
Description Rowan
The first word in the Latin name of mountain ash - Sorbus aucuparia - means "bird."However, in our language, so another is called a botanical species.Therefore, to avoid confusion, the Russian name of the plant is not a literal translation of the Latin.
Vonega, bogoroshnik, vispina, vorobiha, yudik, Goroshnikov, Ryabkov - so popular in different places is called Rowan.The tree is known since ancient times.It is mentioned in the works of ancient scholars, especially Virgil and Pliny.Its fruits are edible and eaten in the past.
Rowan is a shrub or small tree in height from four to fifteen meters.The bark of the trunk it usually brownish-gray (young shoots, it is light gray).Leaves imparipinnate forms, they reach a length of twenty centimeters.Separate plates that make up a complex sheet, oblong and have sharp edges on the teeth.
inflorescence mountain ash - small plates (up to ten centimeters in diameter) white flowers.The fruits are round, one and a half centimeters in diameter, bitter or astringent taste.They are usually bright red, but sometimes the color may be yellow or orange.They ripen, depending on where the growth of mountain ash, mainly from September to October (at least - November).
area of distribution
Rowan refers to hardiness.It is widespread in the northern part of Europe and Asia.We know that the place where it grows rowan, sometimes there are even above the Arctic Circle.
In the wild, these trees usually grow singly or in small groups.The favorite habitat - the slopes of ravines, meadows and forest edges.Rowan prefers sod-podzolic and medium-loamy soils.In poor and sandy soils it grows poorly.Science has also proven that the longer life expectancy of a mountain ash with high humidity.
A large number of mountain ash growing in Belarus, Ukraine (Galicia, Polesie), as well as - in the European part of Russia.In the Baltic, Scandinavia, the Far East and Siberia meet other species of this plant.
Features of growth mountain ash
During germination the cotyledons brought to the surface.They usually live between fifty and eighty days.Rusty Rowan starts earlier than apple or pear, but bloom one week later than they.
In the first year of life rowan seedlings develop slowly, and with the second or third year of the shoots begin to grow vigorously.Young trees are often pyramidal crown shape, which later changed to a round under the weight of foliage and fruit.In most species of mountain ash prevails apical growth.
Under the canopy of rowan reduced life expectancy.It is best to grow and abundant fruit trees in the well-lit areas with moderate humidity.
How many lives Rowan
Compared to other leafy trees, this plant is not considered to be long-lived.The average life expectancy in the nature of mountain ash is eighty - one hundred years.Sometimes age comes to individual instances of a hundred - a hundred and fifty, and sometimes even up to two hundred years, but these are exceptional cases.
Less than rowan, alder lives only (fifty - seventy years) and homemade plum (sixty years).
Useful properties
fruits of mountain ash are recognized not only folk and official medicine.This product is a high level of vitamins (especially A and C) are known as its hemostatic and diuretic action.
After the first frosts of autumn ripe berries of mountain ash lose bitterness, acquiring a sweet taste.On the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul - "Fieldfare" commemorate September 23 our ancestors harvested medicinal Rowan brew is excellent laxative and refreshing means, as well as helping to treat various inflammation.The berries and fruit drinks made brewed extracts, which are then used in the treatment of colds, arteriosclerosis, rheumatism, cardiac insufficiency.
tea from the flowers and berries of mountain ash with the addition of mint - a good remedy for fatigue.
inhabitants of the northern regions, and today often eat rowan berries in their raw form, and dried them soaked and kvass.From this it turns out very tasty berry jam, candy, jellies, jelly and jam.
also known that fruits and vegetables that are in storage in the vaults were transferred Rowan leaves are kept much longer and better.
Folk omens associated with rowan
Knowing how many lives rowan, where it grows and what has curative qualities, it is possible to complete a brief description of some national signs, anciently associated with it.
believed that the late flowering of rowan portends a long fall.If the leaves on the tree turned yellow sooner, we should expect an early autumn and cold winter.
Swarm of bees buzzing around a flowering ash, predicted a clear, serene day.
When in the forest on these trees have seen a large crop of berries, believed that the fall will be rain, and in winter - plenty of snow and cold.If Rowan freak bad - so the fall is destined to be dry.If
bunches of rowan early frosted, we believed that we should prepare for a long winter.
However, scientists note that these days are valid, not all of the above signs.
