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The rowans or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in genus ''Sorbus'' of family Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the mountains of western China and the Himalaya, where numerous apomictic microspecies occur.〔Rushforth, K. (1999). ''Trees of Britain and Europe''. Collins ISBN 0-00-220013-9.〕 The name ''rowan'' was originally applied to the species ''Sorbus aucuparia'', and is also used for other species in ''Sorbus'' subgenus ''Sorbus''.〔McAllister, H.A. 2005. ''The genus Sorbus: Mountain Ash and other Rowans ''. Kew Publishing.〕 Rowans are unrelated to the true ash trees, which belong to the genus ''Fraxinus'', family Oleaceae, though their leaves bear superficial similarity. Formerly, when a wider variety of fruits were commonly eaten in European and North American culture, ''Sorbus'' counted among the home fruits, though ''Sorbus domestica'' is all but extinct in Britain, where it was traditionally revered.〔("The Whitty Pear, ''Sorbus domestica''" )〕 Natural hybrids, often including ''Sorbus aucuparia'' and the whitebeam, ''Sorbus aria'', give rise to many endemic variants in the UK.〔(Cambridge Botanic Garden: the Genus Sorbus )〕 ==Names== The traditional names of the rowan are those applied to the species ''Sorbus aucuparia'', ''Sorbus torminalis'' (wild service-tree), and ''Sorbus domestica'' (true service-tree). The Latin name ''sorbus'' was loaned into Old English as ''syrfe''. The name "service-tree" for ''Sorbus domestica'' is derived from that name by folk etymology. The Latin name ''sorbus'' is from a root for "red, reddish-brown" (PIE '' *sor-/ *ser-''); English ''sorb'' is attested from the 1520s in the sense "fruit of the service tree", adopted via French ''sorbe'' from Latin ''sorbum'' "service-berry". ''Sorbus domestica'' is also known as "Whitty Pear", the adjective ''whitty'' meaning "pinnate". The name "mountain-ash" for ''Sorbus domestica'' is due to a superficial similarity of the rowan leaves to those of the ash; not to be confused in ''Fraxinus ornus'', a true ash that is also known as "mountain ash".〔"The similarities in the physical characteristics of all three types of tree (''Fraxinus excelsior, Fraxinus ornus'' and ''Sorbus aucuparia'' ) are pervasive enough that they are confused not only in folk terminology but also in botanical nomenclature". Richard Stoll Shannon (1975). ''The Arms of Achilles and Homeric Compositional Technique'' Volume 36 of ''Mnemosyne'', (Brill), (p. 41 ). The English herbalist John Gerard in 1590 apparently fell victim to just this confusion, equating ''ornus'' and ''quickbeam'' (see below).〕 ''Sorbus torminalis'' is also known as "chequer tree"; its fruits, formerly used to flavour beer, being called "chequers", perhaps from the spotted pattern of the fruit. The name ''rowan'' is recorded from 1804, detached from an earlier ''rowan-tree, rountree'', attested from the 1540s in northern English and Scottish. It is from a North Germanic source (such as Middle Norwegian), derived from Old Norse ''reynir'' (c.f. Norwegian ''rogn'', Swedish ''rönn''), ultimately from the Germanic verb '' *raud-inan'' "to redden", in reference to the berries (as is the Latin name ''sorbus''). Various dialectal variants of ''rowan'' are found in English, including ''ran, roan, rodan, royan, royne, round, rune''. The Old English name of the rowan is ''cwic-beám'', which survives in the name ''quickbeam'' (also ''quicken'', ''quicken-tree'', and variants). This name by the 19th-century was reinterpreted as connected to the word ''witch'', from a dialectal variant ''wick'' for ''quick'' and names such as ''wicken-tree, wich-tree, wicky, wiggan-tree'', giving rise to names such as ''witch-hazel''〔"Witch-hazel" is much more commonly associated with ''Hamameles''.〕 and ''witch-tree''.〔Abram Smythe Palmer, ''Folk-etymology : a Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions Or Words Perverted in Form Or Meaning, by False Derivation Or Mistaken Analogy'' (1882), (443f ).〕 The Old Irish name is ''cairtheand'', reflected in Modern Irish ''caorann''. The "arboreal" ''Bríatharogam'' in the ''Book of Ballymote'' associates the rowan with the letter ''luis'', with the gloss "delightful to the eye (''li sula'') is ''luis'', i.e. rowan (''caertheand''), owing to the beauty of its berries". Due to this, "delight of the eye" (vel sim.) has been reported as a "name of the rowan" by some commentators. In the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia, this species is commonly referred to as a "dogberry" tree.〔Story, G. M. and Kirwin, W. J. (1990). ''Dictionary of Newfoundland English''. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-6819-7.〕 In German, ''Sorbus aucuparia'' is known as the ''Vogelbeerbaum'' ("bird-berry-tree") or as ''Eberesche''. The latter is a compound of the name of the ash tree (''Esche'') with what is contemporarily the name of the boar (''Eber'') but in fact the continuation of a Gaulish name, ''eburo-'' (also the name for a dark reddish-brown colour, cognate with Greek ''orphnos'', Old Norse ''iarpr'' "brown"); like ''sorbus'', ''eburo-'' seems to have referred to the colour of the berries; it is also recorded as a Gaulish name for the yew (which also has red berries), see also ''Eburodunum (disambiguation)''. The Welsh name ''Criafol ''refers to the tree as "lamenting fruit", associating the red fruit with the blood of Christ; as Welsh tradition believed the Cross was carved from the wood of this tree. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rowan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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