Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rowan tree \Row"an tree`\ [Cf. Sw. r["o]nn, Dan. r["o]nne, Icel. reynir, and L. ornus.] (Bot.) A european tree ( Pyrus aucuparia) related to the apple, but with pinnate leaves and flat corymbs of small white flowers followed by little bright red berries. Called also roan tree, and mountain ash. The name is also applied to two American trees of similar habit ( Pyrus Americana, and Pyrus sambucifolia).
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context botany English) Any of several trees in the genus ''Sorbus'' in North America. 2 (context British English) The European species ''Sorbus aucuparia'', commonly known as rowan or more specifically European rowan. 3 A tree native to southeastern Australia, (taxlink Eucalyptus regnans species noshow=1), the tallest of all flowering plants. 4 A Texan ash tree species, (taxlink Fraxinus texensis species noshow=1).
WordNet
n. any of various trees of the genus Sorbus
tree having wood similar to the alpine ash; tallest tree in Australia and tallest hardwood in the world [syn: Eucalyptus regnans]
low-growing ash of Texas [syn: Fraxinus texensis]
Wikipedia
Mountain ash is a name used for several trees, none of immediate relation. It may refer to:
- Eucalyptus regnans from Australia, the tallest of all flowering plants
- Fraxinus texensis, from Texas
-
Sorbus aucuparia, also known as rowan.
- In North America (mainly U.S.) trees in the subgenus Sorbus subgenus Sorbus are often styled as mountain-ashes to convey their unrelatedness to true ashes. It is commonly believed in many cultures to protect against the supernatural.
Usage examples of "mountain ash".
Tiny, bright-eyed birds squabbled among low shrubs, and a spiny echidna dug among the fibrous roots of an ancient mountain ash.
Steaming mountain ash trees clad its walls, soaring above tree ferns and low-growing fronds.
The Alpine Ash isn't the biggest hardwood tree in the world, because that's the Mountain Ash, Eucalyptus regnans, which can grow to near three hundred feet with a trunk ten feet across and it can live up to eight hundred years.
But the Alpine Ash, the eucalyptus Tommy's going to show me, can live four hundred years and grow to two hundred and eighty feet with a trunk nearly as large as the Mountain Ash.
The raw earth of Beardsley's grave showed dark with moisture, a humped mound beneath the bare branches of the mountain ash.
Larsson isn't looking very good, and Then what he was seeing through the stand of mountain ash penetrated.
Holly, fuchsia, mountain ash, and rhododendron rose up together in one seemingly continuous mass, while heather, broom, and an almost bewildering variety of smaller hedge plants, many brilliantly flowered, filled every space the larger growth left free.
We picked our way through small groves of red-berried mountain ash and larger stands of oak.
A knife was buried under the doorstep, pointing outward from the house, and a switch of mountain ash was placed across the horseshoe over the door.
At the water's edge, under the shade of an old mountain ash, half in, half out of the water, lay the partially frozen body of Skaythe.