Flora of New Zealand Series

rowan

Tree up to 8-(12) m high, usually with an erect trunk and spreading branches; young shoots pilose, sometimes densely so, but soon becoming glabrate. Buds large; outer scales glabrous, purplish, inner scales densely covered with white hairs towards apex. Lvs imparipinnate with up to 8 pairs of leaflets; petiole 20-35-(45) mm long, green or brown to purplish, pilose, but hairs deciduous, sometimes with stalked glands; leaflets (excluding smaller ones near base) narrowly oblong or oblong-elliptic, sometimes lanceolate-elliptic, (20)-30-50-(60) × 8-20-(25) mm, obtuse to acute, ± sessile, deep green and glabrous or finely hairy above, paler and finely to densely pilose below, serrate along whole length or sometimes in upper ⅔ only; leaflets of juvenile plants and suckering shoots narrowly elliptic to elliptic-ovate, deeply and jaggedly toothed; stipules ± deciduous, small, acuminate. Infl. drooping, up to c. 120 mm across; pedicels and branchlets white-villous, becoming glabrate by fruiting. Sepal lobes broadly triangular, 0.6-1.3 mm long, obtuse, white-villous, at least at base, sometimes glabrous in upper part; margin with several short glandular teeth. Petals 3-4.5 mm diam., ± orbicular with abbreviated claw, white. Fr. depressed-globose, sometimes ± oblong-obovoid, 5-10 mm diam., deep orange to scarlet, sometimes crimson, glossy.

N.: Opotiki district, Wellington (Mahuia Stream); S.: Nelson (Lake Rotoiti), Marlborough (Maud Id), Westland (Ikamatua), Canterbury (Christchurch, inland hill country from near Hanmer S. to Lake Pukaki and Ashburton), Otago (Naseby), Southland (between Drummond and Otautau).

Eurasia 1904

Roadsides, gutters, plantation margins, stony scrub, wasteland, coastal and inland areas up to 600-(900) m.

FL Oct-Nov FT Jan-Apr.

Rowan is widely grown in gardens for both its attractive foliage and frs. and is particularly common in colder areas. Most N.Z. specimens have relatively short petioles, short and obtuse leaflets, and hairy sepals and can be referred to subsp. aucuparia. Seedlings are very common in the vicinity of parents and have more deeply and jaggedly toothed leaflets. The sp. has been known in N.Z. as Pyrus aucuparia.