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
Rowan by some commentators. In the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, this species is commonly referred to as a "dogberry" tree. In German, "Sorbus aucuparia" is known as the "Vogelbeerbaum" ("bird-berry tree") or as "Eberesche". The latter is a compound of the name of the ash tree ("Esche") with what is contemporarily the name of the boar ("Eber"), but in fact the continuation of a Gaulish name, "eburo-" (also the name for a dark reddish-brown colour, cognate with Greek "orphnos", Old Norse "iarpr" "brown"); like "sorbus", "eburo-" seems to have referred to the colour of the berries;