How to understand mountain ash?

Forest rowan is an extremely useful plant... Both the honey plant and its wood are beautiful, and feeds the birds in winter, and is also good-looking.

One problem: although its fruits are medicinal, they are bitter... Therefore, they are considered of little value. But this is if you take the wild, the mountain ash.

Varietal is a completely different matter... About her and speech.

Our common, ubiquitous red rowan belongs to the large botanical genus Sorbus... In turn, almost all modern cultivars have their ancestry from this plant.

Rather, from two of its varieties-varieties: Moravian (Central Europe) and Nevezhin (Eastern Europe).

Moravian mountain ash discovered in the Czech Republic in the 19th century and named after the region where it was found - Moravia. Its sweet fruits, 1 cm in diameter, made this variety interesting for breeders.

From it came, for example, the varieties Edulis, Bissneri and Concentra.

Nevezhinsky clone was also found by accident - in a forest near the village of Nevezhino, Vladimir region. Sweet, completely without bitterness, the fruits conquered the local peasants, who quickly realized to plant this mountain ash and sell seedlings to neighbors.

And this also happened in the 19th century. So almost at the same time, in both ends of Europe, nature gave a person a sweet mountain ash instead of a bitter one.

Sometimes nevezhinskaya mountain ash is called "nezhinskaya"... Everyone was confused by the wine merchant Fyodor Smirnov, who in the old days traded in tincture on its fruits. Not wanting to reveal the secrets of the recipe to competitors, he deliberately threw out one syllable and named his product "Nezhinskaya".

Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin was very interested in breeding high-quality mountain ash. Many of the varieties he created today have either been lost, or over-pollinated and lost their original characteristics, or are stored only in scientific collections. But those that have survived often become the basis for modern breeding work.

Titanium

This variety is one of the surviving Michurin creations.... It was created by a complex crossing of mountain ash, pear and red-leaved apple.

Its characteristics:

1. Medium-sized tree (up to 5 meters) with a sparse rounded crown. Shoots are straight, the color of the bark is dull brown.
2. Leaves are glossy, dark green.
3. Inflorescences are scutes of medium diameter, the color of the petals is white.
4. Fruits are slightly ribbed, rounded, weighing 1.2 grams. The skin is dark red, waxy. The pulp is yellow, sweet and sour, tart. The use is universal.

The Titan variety is frost- and drought-resistant, not affected by diseases.

Bead

Variety created Candidate of Agricultural Sciences Tatiana Kirillovna Poplavskaya... Fanatically devoted to science, in the 70s of the XX century she was actively engaged in the search and restoration of the lost Michurin varieties of mountain ash.

Characteristics and description of the variety:

1. A plant of moderate growth, 3 meters high. Shoots are gray-brown, straight. Begins to bear fruit, according to various sources, at 3 or 5 years of age.
2. Leaves are light green, serrated.
3. The inflorescences are large, with white flowers.
4. Fruits are regular, rounded, with a red skin, weighing 1.2-1.9 grams.The pulp is creamy, with a hint of cranberry flavor, but no strong acid. The appointment is universal. Ripen early, by the end of August.

Particularly valuable qualities of the variety - high resistance to extreme frosts, drought, diseases. The yield is high.

Likernaya Michurina

One of the Michurin varieties, lost and restored. It has a lot in common with one of its "parents" - chokeberry.

Characteristics of the rowan garden variety:

1. Medium-sized plant, about 5 meters, with a sparse oval crown. Sometimes found in shrub form. Gives strong annual growth (up to 30 cm).
2. Leaves are dark green, alternate, pinnate.
3. Beautiful dense inflorescences with a shield diameter of 10 cm. The color of the petals is white-pink.
4. Fruits are dark purple, almost black, weighing 1 g, ripen in September, stored for a month. The taste is reminiscent of black chokeberry - sweet, slightly astringent. Purpose - for making liqueur-type wines, jams.

Advantages of the variety: high winter hardiness and moderate drought resistance. Flaw: Fruit may rot.

Ruby

The Michurin variety was also lost, but found, multiplied and transferred for variety testing to T.K. Poplavskaya. Like all old Michurin forms, this type of mountain ash has a slight astringency in taste.

Its characteristics:

1. A low tree, 3 meters high, with a drooping crown. Skeletal branches are located almost at right angles, shoots are straight, with light brown integuments.
2. The leaves are light green, with a finely serrated edge and a pubescent petiole.
3. Scutellum not wide, flowers small, pinkish-white.
4. Fruits are rounded-flattened, weighing 1.3 g. The skin is ruby-colored, the flesh is yellow. The taste is sweet and sour, slightly tart. The purpose of the fruit is for processing into juices, jellies, wines, liqueurs, jelly. Suitable for drying.

The plant is resistant to low temperatures.

Scarlet large

Variety bred by the Central Genetic Laboratory. Michurin (today the All-Russian Research Institute of Genetics and Breeding of Fruit Plants). An interesting, very effective plant, with really large fruits for a red-fruited mountain ash.

Variety characteristics:

1. The height of the tree is 5 meters. Crohn of medium density, wide pyramidal shape. Poorly pubescent straight shoots with gray-brown bark and many large lentils.
2. Leaves are dark green, with broad lanceolate plates, shiny.
3. Wide scutes with a large number of flowers.
4. Fruits from 1.7 to 2.5 grams, slightly ribbed, juicy. Scarlet skin, spicy taste, somewhat sour than other varieties, without bitterness. The appointment is dining and technical.

The variety is able to withstand extreme frosts down to -50⁰С. Resistant to diseases and pests.

White, yellow and orange decorative varieties

In addition to the usual red and black-fruited mountain ash, the efforts of breeders varieties with yellow, orange and even white fruits were bredthat can decorate any garden.

For example, grade Yellow with slender, flexible branches that bend to the ground with a bountiful harvest. From its fruits, rowan kvass, original fillings for pies and jams are obtained.

Of orange-fruited, it is very decorative grade Ogonyok - one of the most heat-resistant and drought-resistant. As it ripens, it changes the color of apples from yellow to fiery orange.

Rowan Daughter Kubova - a new variety, bred by spontaneous hybridization of Nevezhinskaya Kubova. The fruits of this tree also have a bright orange color in the ripeness phase, and their taste is juicy, bright, sour-sweet, without a hint of bitterness or astringency.

Kubovaya itself also has orange fruits, but the yield is not so high. Cubic is a derived form from the nevezhin mountain ash, created through folk selection. Its apples are slightly elongated, pentahedral, with a very pleasant taste.

But white-fruited mountain ash, unfortunately, is not suitable for food. For example, the varieties Kene or White Swan have very bitter fruits... However, their compactness and high decorativeness makes it possible to create an interesting play of colors among other rowan trees.

By combining in plantings, for example, high Scarlet, large, delicate Yellow and miniature White Swan, you can get a combination of benefits and beauty.