IN Wyre Forest district we are very fortunate to have wonderful sandy soil which give rise to very beautiful and rare habitats like lowland heath and acid grassland.

The poor, freely draining soil, also supports one of our more beautiful and colourful trees, the rowan or mountain ash.

Wyre Forest could hardly be described as a mountainous district, but the poor soils and acid conditions are very similar to those found on mountains, where the mountain ash naturally flourishes, growing in sheltered locations in the mountainous upland heathland landscapes.

Confusingly mountain ash trees are not members of the ash tree family, despite having very similar pinnate leaves.

The mountain ash, is in fact a member of the rose family, which probably explains where it gets it beauty from, as the rose family not only contains roses themselves renowned for their beauty but also some other very attractive trees like the hawthorn, blackthorn and apple.

Just like these trees, the mountain ash produces fantastic clusters of creamy pink-white flowers.

Unlike the rest of this family, the mountain ash’s colourful beauty does not end with the fading of the flowers the clusters of its flowers mature into shocking red or orange berries, which hang from the mountain ash’s branches as colourfully as any Christmas decoration.

Most of the sandy soiled areas of the district will now have an abundance of these trees showing a wonderful display of berries.

The tree’s attractiveness and relatively slight stature has also led to it being adopted as an ornamental tree in many gardens and parks so you won’t even have to venture to far into the countryside to marvel at these splendid trees.

Despite the attractiveness of these berries and edibility of some of the other members of the rose family tree’s fruit, eg apples, pears, damsons and blackberries just to mention just a few, the mountain ash’s berries are poisonous to us humans, despite the fact that you can readily witness them being consumed by dozens of birds.

In past times, the berries were gathered and after preparation turned into nutritious preserves and were also used for the dying of fabrics.

The wood from the tree was also used in then production of barrels.

There is a lot of folklore associated with this plant including the belief that carrying a small sprig of this wood would be a protection against lightning and as this year there seems to be a particularly large crop of berries the following old country saying could be up for the test.

“Many rains many rowans, many rowans, many yawns” refers to the belief that if it’s been wet then there will be lots of rowan berries and if there are lots of berries there will be a poor harvest and hence not much for the country folk to do.

Perhaps we shall see if there is any truth to this this year.