Rowan Rowan The rowans or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus "Sorbus" of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the mountains of western China and the Himalaya, where numerous apomictic microspecies occur. The name "rowan" was originally applied to the species "Sorbus aucuparia" and is also used for other species in "Sorbus" subgenus "Sorbus". Formerly, when a wider variety of fruits were commonly eaten in Europe and North America, "Sorbus" was a domestically used fruit throughout these regions. It is still used in
Sorbus aucuparia tart, and aromatic, and candied or used in compote. The two cultivars are self-pollinating, yield fruit early, and the sugar content increases while the acid content decreases as the fruit ripen. 'Beissneri' is a cultivar with reddish foliage and bark and serrated leaves. Other edible varieties originate in and are named after Klosterneuburg, Lower Austria. Russian botanist Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin began in 1905 to crossbreed common "S. aucuparia" with other species to create fruit trees. His experiments resulted in the cultivars 'Burka', 'Likjornaja', 'Dessertnaja', 'Granatnaja', 'Rubinovaja', and 'Titan'. Other "S. aucuparia" hybrids planted in Western Europe beginning in the 1980s