Sorbus esserteauana Sorbus esserteauana Sorbus esserteauana, commonly known as Esserteau's rowan, is a species of rowan. It is a small tree, typically tall growing in mountain thickets and cliffs. It is an endemic species to China, being only found in western Sichuan. It has small white flowers and small red berries that are actually a pome fruit. Unlike all other species of "Sorbus", the fruit are hard and inedible to humans, but they are eaten by birds that scatter the seeds. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant in gardens and parks for its decorative fruit and because it attracts birds. When
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;