Fruit

Rowan

Sorbus aucuparia L. · mountain ash, rowanberries · Polish: Jarząb pospolity (jarzębina)

Edible with care

Photo: Carl Axel Magnus Lindman / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

How to identify it

Tree or shrub with pinnate leaves ending in a single leaflet (5–7 pairs of leaflets).
White flowers in dense, flat-topped clusters smelling of bitter almonds (May–June).
Berries roundish, 6–9 mm, scarlet to orange, in large clusters.
The berries usually ripen in the first half of September.

Where it grows

Woodland of various types — broadleaved, mixed and coniferous, poor and fertile — and vegetation on felled areas.

In the kitchen and the home medicine cabinet

After freezing (e.g. in the freezer), drying or a brief dip in boiling water (blanching), the berries lose their poisonous properties and bitterness. Jarzębiak (rowan nalewka), preserves, marmalades, jams, juices, syrups, purées; berries cooked with apples to serve with meat; dried (at about 40 °C) for tea.

Caution Raw berries are inedible: they contain parasorbic acid (called ‘parasorbinowy’ in State Forests sources), which irritates the stomach lining and in larger amounts causes digestive upset. Heat treatment or freezing converts it into non-toxic sorbic acid. Do not eat raw rowan berries and do not give them to children. Do not pick from trees beside busy roads.