There is one significant day in the folk calendar - Peter-Paul Fieldfare. It falls at the end of September - the period of ripening rowan berries. According to popular custom, on this day, the branches of this plant with fruits were tied into small bundles and hung under the roofs of houses. This beautiful custom is connected with the fact that mountain ash was perceived as a tree that could protect people from all sorts of troubles.
There are approximately 80 varieties of mountain ash in the world, of which 34 grow in Russia. Rowan grows in Asia and Europe, is also found in Siberia, its range extends to the very Far North. The plant is widely cultivated in parks, gardens, near houses as a beautiful ornamental plant.
After reading a little information in the article, you can learn about one of the most widespread plant species - Siberian mountain ash (photo and description in the article).
Growing places
The plant is widely distributed over most of the territory of Eurasia. You can meet him in North-Eastern Europe, in Siberia, in the Far Eastern regions of Russia, in China (northeast) and in Mongolia (north).
Habitats - forest and forest-tundra zone, mountain-forest belt. The plant grows on river banks, in forests, as well as on stony placers and forest clearings.
Rowan can grow up to 200 years.
Description
Siberian mountain ash is a shrub or small tree 3-10 meters high. The bark is smooth, grayish in color. Unpaired leaves with oblong lanceolate leaves are 10-20 centimeters long and 8-12 cm wide. The edges of the leaves are serrate-toothed. The leaf blades are bare and green above, grayish-green below, and may also be pubescent along the midrib.
Flowers are regular, fragrant, painted white and have five petals. Diameter - 7-10 millimeters. They form dense and wide thyroid inflorescences. Flowering occurs in May-June. Rowan bears abundant fruit. For example, in the Amur and Primorye, the yield of berries can reach several hundred tons.
The fruit of the Siberian mountain ash is a red or orange berry in the shape of a ball. The diameter is less than 1 centimeter. Inside the berry contains up to 7 seeds. After the berries ripen in September, they stay on the branches for quite a long time and retain their juicy bitter-sour taste until the very frost.
Chemicalcomposition of Siberian mountain ash
The berries of the plant contain up to 24% sugars, 3.6% organic acids (sorbic, succinic and tartaric), ascorbic acid (up to 200 mg per 100 grams of mass of raw materials), amino acids (235 mg per 100 g), carotene (18 mg per 100 g), phylloquinone (1 mg per 100 g). They also contain bioflavonoids, folic acid, parasorbic acid mono-glycosides, trace elements (zinc, copper, manganese, magnesium, iron) and essential oils.
Siberian rowan seeds contain 22% of fatty oils and amygdalin glycoside, and ascorbic acid leaves contain about one and a half times more than fruits. They also contain substances such as flavanols astragalin, kempfeol-3-sophoroside, hyperoside, quercetin-3-sophoroside, phytoncides and isoquercitrin.
In the bark of the plant there are a lot of phanticides and tannins.
Meaning and application
Various extracts of Siberian rowan have a beneficial effect on the skin, toning and strengthening it. They help strengthen the immune system and saturate the skin with numerous trace elements and vitamins. Both fresh and dried fruits are used in medicine as a multivitamin.
As noted above, the mountain ash of the described variety has long been bred as a fruit and ornamental tree, and its fruits are collected from both cultivated and wild trees.
Food use
Siberian rowan berries, as well as some other species, are eaten both processed and fresh. Juice is a high-energy product rich in ascorbic acid. The fruits are used in making fruit tea.
Many dishes are prepared from mountain ash: dumplings, pies, jelly, kvass, jam and seasonings. Vinegar, marshmallow, marmalade, jam, marmalade, jelly, etc. are made from them. In addition, rowan fruits are candied and pickled. Some also make soaked mountain ash.
Rowan - a source of early May honey, which has a specific aroma and an unusual reddish tint. It is considered healing.
Legends and signs
All types of this plant (including the Siberian variety) are important in people's lives. It's not just that there are legends and signs about mountain ash.
In Pomorie there is a legend about the origin of the Russian name of the plant. It is about a married couple with two children. The unloved eldest daughter also had an unkind name - Eight. She was angry, envious and wayward. The parents gave the youngest son an affectionate name - Romanushka. And he was very friendly and kind, and his parents doted on him. The eighth took a dislike to Romanushka and decided to destroy him. Once she took a child into a rotten swamp and ruthlessly drowned her. But finally she failed to destroy her brother. In that place grew a curly, very friendly tree. And since then it has been growing throughout the Russian land, and people have given it an affectionate name - mountain ash. She pleases everyone with her loy alty, beauty and kindness.
Since ancient times, people decorated not only their living quarters with rowan branches (on the day of Peter the Great,Pavel fieldfare), but also gates, sheds, fences. They were also used in wedding ceremonies of those times.
Signs:
- rowan blossoms - it's time to sow flax;
- late bloom - will be a long fall;
- a good rowan harvest leads to a good rye harvest;
- the tree blooms well - there will be a lot of oats and flax;
- There are a lot of mountain ash in the forest - it will be a rainy autumn;
- little rowan in the forest - dry autumn.
Thus, rowan is not only beautiful, but also a very useful plant.
