Palouse Prairie Foundation plant database (under development)
Genus species:      Common name:     Match: Full Partial
Plant Species: Sorbus scopulina, western mountain ash

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae -- rose
Genus: Sorbus
Species: scopulina
Variety: The Inland Northwest phase is var. scopulina
Common Name: western mountain ash, Greene's mountain ash
Species Code: SOSC2, SOSCS
Origin: Native to clearings and openings in forests in the foothills to subalpine zones of western North America from Alaska to California east to Alberta and New Mexico.
Rare: no

Form: shrub, unarmed, multiple stemmed, erect to spreading, 1-6 m tall, freely branched; winter buds glutinous and glabrous to sparsely strigillose; young twigs grayish strigillose-pilose, older bark yellowish to reddish, turning grayish-red with age.
Mature height: 3-20 feet
Duration: perennial
Longevity: long-lived
Habitat Type: forest
Wetland Indicator Status: FACU

Leaves: alternate, deciduous, pinnate; leaflets (7) 9-13, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 2-7 cm long, cuneate at the base, acute or acuminate at the tips, finely serrate, glabrous and dark green above, paler underneath; stipules green, somewhat membranous, deciduous or persistent.
Flowers: small, usually 70-200 borne in a pubescent, flat topped corymb; calyx obconic, whitish-pubescent, with 5 triangular lobes; petals 5, white, oval, 5-6 mm long; stamens 15-20; styles 2 mm long.
Flower color: white
Bloom: May, into June and early July at higher elevations in the mountains
Bloom starts on:
Bloom ends on:
Fruit: fleshy pome, orange to red, subglobose, glossy, 7-10 mm wide; seeds 1-2 per chamber, ovate to oblong, flattened, brown.
Vegetation type:

Characteristics:
Pyrus scopulina in St. John 1963.
Reproduces sexually by seed.
144,000 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
x=17 (University of British Columbia 2003).
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a pome.
Some native peoples ate the bitter fruits fresh or dried.
Bark and branches were used medicinally by native peoples (Moerman 2003).
Seeds are dispersed by birds which eat the fruit (Piper 1986).
Birds eat the fruit (St. John 1963, Parish et al 1996). Deer and moose eat the twigs (Parish et al 1996).
Livestock and large mammals eat the tender young twigs and moose browse the plants in winter. Fruits are eaten by birds and bears (Craighead et al 1963).
Comments: may hybridize with S. sitchensis and the European ornamental S. aucuparia (Patterson et al 1985).

Sun requirement: full to partial sun
Soil moisture: mesic
Precipitation: 10-60 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
Fire: Resprouts from the crown following fire (Crane & Fischer 1986).
Hazards:

Sowing time: fall
Transplant time: spring
Stratification: extended cold moist
Seed yield: high
Seed harvest: medium difficulty
Seed first harvest: no information available
Seed cleaning: difficult
Planting duration: long
Seed insect problem: no information available
Seed shatter: low
Seed size: medium
Seed harvest date: no information available
Seed comments: fruits are retained on the plant into winter, may be eaten by birds

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria
Keywords: native perennial upland forest shrub
Alternate Genus: Pyrus
Alternate Species:
Alternate Variety:

Propagation:
4 protocols in the Native Plant Network
Corvallis Oregon Plant Materials Center
seed, Glacier Nat. Park, Montana
cuttings, Glacier Nat. Park, Montana
Lone Peak Nursery, Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Land

Other Propagation Information:
Seed stratified at 5oC in moist sand begins germinating in 462 days (Piper 1986).
Seeds germinate better and seedlings grow larger in sun rather than shade, suggesting that recruitment occurs primarily in canopy gaps (Piper 1986).
Reproduces sexually by seed.


Notes: Has a nice form for landscaping. Flowers profusely. Birds are attracted to the fruits. Fire blight can be a problem, but some plants are resistant (Idaho Native Plant Society 1999).

References:

Craighead, John J., Frank C. Craighead, and Ray J. Davis. 1963. A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA.

Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.

Idaho Native Plant Society. 1999. Native Plants of Northern Idaho for Landscaping and Restoration. INPS White Pine Chapter. Moscow, ID. Online at http://www.idahonativeplants.org/guides/NorthIdahoGuide.aspx

Moerman, Dan. 2003. Native American Ethnobotany: a Database of Foods, Drugs, Dyes and Fibers of Native American Peoples, Derived from Plants. University of Michigan-Dearborn. Online at http://herb.umd.umich.edu/ Accessed 12/7/09.

Parish, Roberta, Ray Coupe, and Dennis Lloyd. 1996. Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing. Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Patterson, Patricia A., Kenneth E. Neiman, and Jonalea R. Tonn. 1985. Field Guide to Forest Plants of Northern Idaho. USDA Forest Service Intermountain Research Station. General Technical Report INT-180. Ogden, Utah.

Piper, Jon K. 1986. Germination and Growth of Bird-dispersed Plants: Effect of Seed Size and Light on Seedling Vigor and Biomass Allocation. American Journal of Botany 73:959-965.

St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Accessed 9/1/09 online at http://www.bcflora.org/

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 4 December 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium