MOUNTAIN ASH (Sorbus Americana, Marsh.). Shrub to 30 feet. Low shrub, or slender tree, with narrow, open round head, of stout branchlets. Bark smooth brown or gray, shed ding in thin scales; twigs fuzzy. Wood pale brown, weak, close-grained; sapwood of many layers; pith large in twigs. Leaves compound, of feather type, 6 to 8 inches long, of 13 to 17 leaflets each 4 to 3 inches long, and narrow as a willow leaf, saw toothed, thin, dark yellow-green, paler lining, stout midribs. Flowers in dense, flat cymes, 3 to 4 inches across, after leaves; fragrant, small, perfect, creamy white, of the rose type. May, June. Fruit small, roundish, fleshy pome, acid, scarlet, with bony seeds, persistent all winter. Dist.: Rich, moist soil, swamp borders and rocky hillsides; Newfoundland to Mani toba; south on highlands to North Carolina and Tennessee.
A shrub south of New England and the Great Lakes region. l'lanted for ornament and to feed the birds in winter.
The ROUGH-LEAVED DOGWOOD (C. asperifolia, Michx.). has long been classed among the shrubby species. It becomes tree-like in southern Arkansas and eastern Texas, sometimes reaching a height of 50 feet. As a shrub it is distributed from Ontario to Minnesota and Nebraska, and south into the Gulf States.
The leaves are dark green, paler below and often softly pubescent, but made rough above by stubby white hairs. This is the only tree dogwood with white berries, so it is easily identified by leaf and fruit.