Rowan

Parts Usually Used

Fruit

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Rowan is a deciduous tree or shrub; reaches a height of 50 feet, the stem has close and smooth gray bark. The leaves are alternate and odd-pinnate, with 9-15 oblong-lanceolate, serrate leaflets which are usually finely hairy underneath. Numerous small white flowers appear in compound, terminal, shaggy corymbs during May and June, developing eventually into a berry-like, pea-sized, red pome which ripens in the fall.

Another variety: American mountain ash (S. americana) can also be used in the same way. This shrub or tree grows to 30 feet high and is found from Newfoundland to North Carolina and Michigan.

Where Found

Grows wild in the deciduous forests and mountains of Europe and Asia. Often planted for ornament there and elsewhere.

Medicinal Properties

Aperient, astringent, diuretic

Legends, Myths and Stories

Used to flavor liqueurs and cordials.

Uses

Historically, herbalists utilized the fresh fruit juice as a mild laxative and as a gargle intended to soothe hoarseness, sore throats, and inflamed mucous membranes. When prepared as a jam, the fruit was regarded as an astringent and administered for mild diarrhea. Folk traditions also employed the plant for piles, urinary difficulties, indigestion, gallbladder complaints, scurvy, intestinal worms, and boils, as well as for stimulating the appetite and serving as a general blood purifier.

Bibliography

American Folk Medicine , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973 Culpeper’s Complete Herbal & English Physician: Updated With 117 Modern Herbs , by Nicholas Culpeper, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1990, (reprint of 1814) Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A. , Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 The Herbalist Almanac , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.

copyright 1974. Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R. , Horticultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, 1973 Indian Uses of Native Plants , by Edith Van Allen Murphey, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1958, print 1990 The Nature Doctor: A Manual of Traditional and Complementary Medicine , by Dr. A. , 27 Pine Street (Box 876) New Canaan, CT.

06840-0876. Copyright Verlag A. Vogel, Teufen (AR) Switzerland 1952, 1991 Webster’s New World Medical Dictionary , New World Dictionaries, 850 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44114.