Return to Native Trees of the Southern Rocky Mountains

A shrub or small tree with compound leaves of many narrow leaflets, dense flat clusters of small white flowers in June and July, and in Fall clusters of red or red-orange fruit like tiny apples. Greene's mountain-ash, which is not a true ash tree, grows in shaded moist places in forest glens and mountain canyons from about 6000 to 10,000 feet elevation, along both sides of the Continental Divide, and is more common at higher elevations on the western slope. It can reach 20 feet in height and 4 inches in stem diameter. The fruit is eaten by numerous birds, and by marten and fisher. Deer, elk, and moose browse the twigs.

The tree is named for Edward L. Greene who first described it. It is also called the Rowan tree, a traditional name for the European mountain-ash of the same genus (Sorbus), which also can propagate naturally in Colorado. The scientific name is Sorbus scopulina, scopulina meaning "of the rocks."

Leaves: 4 to 9 inches long, compound, 11 to 15 leaflets, each leaflet 1 to 2 inches long, sharply toothed nearly to the base, narrow, and very sharply pointed. Colorful in fall. Sumac leaves are similar in shape but much larger.

Fruit: Each berry 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch diameter, numerous in flat clusters 4 to 6 inches across, in August.

Bark: thin, reddish brown, smooth or slightly scaly.