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American Mountain-Ash,
Dogberry, Sorbus Americana Marsh. Height: A small tree usually 3-6 m high with a short trunk and ascending or spreading branches, forming an open, round topped crown. It is often shrub-like with many branches arising from near the ground. Twigs: Stout, smooth and hairless, reddish brown to grayish, with a scaling whitish film and rather large, elongate white lenticels. Buds: Conical, shiny dark red or wined colored, moistly hairless or with a few scattered hairs, and gummy. Terminal bud is about 1.5 cm long and often curved at the tip. Lateral buds are smaller and appressed to the twig. Leaf-scars are narrow twig. There are five bundle scars. Bark is bronze to purplish on newer branches, grayish green to light gray with many large, horizontal, warty lenticels on the older trunks. Leaves: Alternate and pinnately compound with 11-17 leaflets. Leaflets are lanceolate to narrowly oblong-lanceolate, gradually tapering to the tip, and 4-5 times as long as wide. They are bright shiny green and hairless above, paler and hairless beneath, and 5-8 cm long. The margin is sharply and finely toothed nearly to the base. The terminal leaflet is usually oval-shaped. Flowers: Creamy-white, in dense, flat-topped terminal clusters (cymes), 6-15 cm across. Each flower has 5 petals and is 5-8 mm in diameter. There are 15-20 stamens that are shorter than the petals. The flower stalks are usually hairless but may be sparsely hairy. Blooms from late June through July. Fruit: Berry-like pomes, glossy, bright orange-red to scarlet, 5-9 mm in diameter, edible but acidic, and borne in round-topped clusters. Seeds are 3-3.5 mm long by 2 mm wide. Ripen in September and may persist through the winter. Habitat: Found throughout Newfoundland in open woods, rocky hillsides, forested areas, moist thickets, and other habitats. Gardner (1973) gives 4 records of its occurrence in southern Labrador. Source:
Native Trees and Shrubs Used
with permission from
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