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| The Rowan Oak |
Monday, April 14, 2014
The Rowan Oak at the National Arboretum
On yesterday's tram tour of the U.S. National Arboretum, we passed this magnificent 150-year-old "Rowan Oak." What is a Rowan Oak? It's not William Faulkner's residence (now belonging to the University of Mississippi) and it is not an oak tree. A rowan is a
European Mountain ash or serviceberry tree. The Rowan Oak over time has gathered
mythical properties of protection, strength. According to Norse
mythology, Thor himself was saved from a rushing stream when he grabbed a
root/branch of a rowan tree. Local lore has it that an area American Indian
chief brought all of his warriors to stand next to this tree to absorb
its protection and strength. And Arboretum grounds crews have found
buttons from Civil War uniforms scattered around this tree.
It's hard to find information about this particular tree, and I've been searching for hours, both online and in my tree books. The Latin name includes "Sargenti", after the Botanist who identified it.
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Nice!
ReplyDelete"The Rowan Tree" is also a traditional Scottish folk song, see
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YGdPrAET6I
Stu: What a sweet, sentimental old song. Thanks for sending the link. Learned from the various comments that the mountain ash does not have red berries. and so our knowledge advances, bit by bit....
ReplyDelete