MOUNTAIN ASH seeds Sorbus sitchensis
LATIN NAME: SORBUS SITCHENSIS
COMMON NAME: Sitka Mountain Ash
The Sitka mountain ash corals the small, deciduous tree or the large shrub with the compound leaves of the many toothed leaflets and the flat-topped clusters of the small, white flowers that open through the early summer, the round, bright-red berries following in the dense clusters, the berries coraling among the leaves into the autumn. It likes the sun or the light shade, and the moist, well-drained soil.
Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology
The red berry clusters of the Sitka mountain ash give it a recognised place in the research on the cold-climate rowan trees of the rose family, and the sitchensis species appears in the studies of the bird garden plants and the berry chemistry. The work looks at the way the tree fruits in the cool sites, the winter food value, and the seed biology. The ecologists value the bird food, and the growers of the hardy ornamental trees keep the species in their catalogues.
Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications
In the cool garden, the Sitka mountain ash corals the autumn garden with the red berries. The berries feed the birds through the cold months, the white flower clusters add the early-summer interest, and the tree makes the fine specimen for the small plot. It grows well in the moist, well-drained, sunny or lightly shaded ground. Hardy, coral-berried and bird-feeding.
To grow the Sitka Mountain Ash from seed, sow the seeds into the drills of the cold frame in the autumn, then cover them lightly, keep the frame cool and gently watered, and the seedlings spring up in the spring.
Keep the frame cool and gently watered, and pot the seedlings on as they grow. The coral berries come within a few seasons. Stand the young trees in the cool, moist ground, and the coral berries will colour within a few seasons.
Foliage is pinnately compound with 7-9 toothed leaflets.Small white flowers borne in large, dense, flat-topped clusters; perfect and monoecious. Fruit (berries) as small round pomes (1/4 to 1/2 inch diameter); red to orange.
Propagation: Propagated by seed sown fresh in fall or stored and stratified. Cold stratify at 32 degrees for 2-4 months