Description: Small or medium sized tree with irregularly ovoid crown; branches strongly ascending, few; open.

Height: 10-20 m

Diameter: 0.3-0.8 m

Leaves: Pinnate, to 22 × 12 cm, from nine to nineteen (usually fifteen) leaflets each to 6 × 2 cm, sessile, oblique at rounded base, oblong, evenly forward crenate-serrate to within 1 cm of base, finely and densely pubescent beneath at first, later nearly glabrous; rachis terete below leaflets, grooved among them. Leaves unfold in early April, rarely colour before falling, except in N Scotland where fine red and crimson until November, colour depending on soil type.

Shoots: Dull purplish-grey, pubescent at first, soon glabrous. Bud long ovoid; 1.7 cm; curved tip, outer scales dark purple with long dense appressed grey hairs; inner scales densely hairy.

Bark: Silvery grey, then light grey-brown, smooth until shallowly networked by a pattern of thin scaly ridges.

Flowers: Dense inflorescence of woolly stems, erect or nodding, 10-15 cm across; flowers faintly creamy white, 1 cm across, open in May.

Fruit: Nearly 1 cm, yellow in late July, suddenly orange then scarlet within a few days in early August, soon attacked by Mistle-thrushes, Blackbirds and Starlings.

Habitat: Forests, thickets, thin scrubland and sporadically in shelter (eg. stream banks) up to 2000m in mountains. Sun-loving, but also flourishes in shade and on virtually any soil. Adapted to short growing season.

Range: Throughout Europe except Iberian peninsula, including far north. Native throughout UK, reaching almost 1000m in Scotland (higher than any other tree) and a notable feature of the landscape in W Ross and Sutherland.

The acid fruits, rich in tannin, can be used for making jams and liqueurs and, with their medicinal properties, for treating coughs and intestinal complaints. The leaves make reasonable fodder for sheep.

Information: Mitchell (1988), MacDonald (1984), Bean IV

Source: Weasdale Nurseries, Newbiggin-on-Lune, Cumbria.

Purchased: 1994 - 25 small forest-grade trees

Planted: One (source not recorded) planted some years prior to 1993, in side strip, about 2.5 m high in 1993, 5.2 m in October 1998.

Of Weasdale trees: two at south end of Eurostrip 1994.04.01 and five more on the next day. Three more planted out in May and the rest heeled in. Four more of these were planted out on 1995.02.27, and three were donated to Greenclose in spring 1998 (a few more heeled in trees were given away in the meantime).

Progress: apart from one trodden on by a Doberman, and later strimmed (the coup de grace), all have survived and most have prospered. In October 1998, the tallest (at E36F) was measured at 2.9 m, with several of the others up to about 2.5 m. Most are now flowering and producing good berry crops most years - though the birds strip them within a few days of first showing signs of going red.

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