While traveling in Great Britain, I picked up something called Highland Rowan jelly that was delicious. Does anyone here grow mountain Ash / Rowan for fruit and if so, are there varieties you can recommend as better tasting? I’m in zone 6. Thank you
-Pete
I believe they all contain a toxic compound (parasorbic acid) that needs to be cooked to be converted to something safe to consume. They are weedy/invasive in my neighborhood so I looked into using them, but never got around to it. I grafted one with pear that overhung from my neighbor’s yard, but then the new owners there removed the tree.
I don’t have an answer to your actual question about cultivars, but just wanted to throw out that warning in case you weren’t aware.
Hi;
Go to: www.Whiffletreefarmandnursery.ca
Have a look at their 2019 on-line catalogue at page 36 and 37. You will find 3 different types of “special” mountain ash trees. I bought the “Evans edible” 2 years ago but no fruit yet. Look promising though.
Marc
check out Rabina mtn. ash on onegreenworld.com. i grow Ivans beauty that’s a cross of mtn. ash and aronia but it hasnt fruited yet. got Sierra pear grafted to it.
Highly recommend Shipova — a mountain ash cross that is very delicious right off the tree. I know it does very well in PNW zone 8. Unsure how it will do in PA zone 6.
‘Shipova’ has no Mt. ash in its ancestry. It’s a hybrid between whitebeam (Sorbus aria) and pear.
A unique and exciting European pear and mountain ash cross from Yugoslavia, Shipova will grow to be a 15’+ tree and produces a nice crop of medium-sized, yellow, round, flavorful fruit.
Yes, you can expect misinformation to be posted in many nursery descriptions.
Also one green world
Also New York Times. Fake news?
Fake news is a different category than accidental misinformation. I guess you’re just digging in instead of looking up to see if there was any validity to what I said. No worries. You do you. 
What do those taste like? I been thinking about grafting one, but seems several people said they take forever to fruit.
They taste like an asian pear but seemed sweeter and more aromatic.
I have no experience growing these. I sampled these at a different place than mine.
Here’s what Dave’s Garden has to say about the ancestry of shipova:
Aside from having very tasty fruit, the shipova is also somewhat of a botanical rarity: It’s an intergeneric hybrid. Such hybrids are rarely-seen crosses between two different genera, in this case Sorbus and Pyrus. The specific varieties are thought to be Pyrus communis, the Common European Pear, and Sorbus aria, the Whitebeam. Because mountain ashes are also in the Sorbus family, they are sometimes erroneously cited as one of the parents.
Along its way to the U.S., the shipova picked up an amazing number of botanical names. They include Pyrus tomentosa, Bollwilleria auricularis, Azarolus pollvilleriana, and Sorbus bollwylleriana. The preferred botanical moniker today is xSorbus auricularis. Common names other than ‘Shipova’ include ‘Bollywyller Pear’ and ‘Smokvarka.’
there’s a baby shipova they sell that’s a smaller tree but fruits sooner. i also read it was a whitebeam/ pear cross. not alot of info online about it. sad as many nurseries copy info. from other nurseries instead of researching it themselves. look into the crosses of Ivan Minuchin. dont know if i spelled that right. he did alot of mountain ash crosses we see for sale today like Ivans belle and Ivans beauty.
Thanks for the clarification.
In the former USSR there was a plant breeder, Iwan Mitshurin, who specialised in breeding very hardy fruittrees that would thrive in the coldest part of the country. Wild fruit trees rowan, hawthorn, aronia, etc. were used to intercross to create these new species. Rowan was probably the most used species. Many large fruited selections were made and selections with less cyanide content. These are the so called “edulis” (edible) varieties. There are quite a few of them. The best know is probably “Rosica Major”. There are also many intergeneric hybrids with hawthorn and aronia. Unfortunately the result is quite disappointing… none of these selections have " edible" fruit. They still contain a high amount of cyanide. The trick is not to crush the fruit to much, certainly not so that the seeds (very high cyanide content) are crushed, and not to boil the fruit. Gently macerate the fruit, add sugar and let it absorb the juice…then strain it and process the juice into jelly.
But there is a better solution. There is a rowan species called Sorbus commixta and more particularly the subspecies “wilfordii” that is almost identical to common rowan apart from the fact that the foliage is glossy and the autumn color is deep scarlet red. The important fact in this case is that the fruit, that is just like regular rowan berries, contains virtually no cyanide. It can even be consumed just like that ( but not crushing the seed). This species really makes a fine jelly very reminiscent of apricot jelly.
onegreenworld.com sells some of them or at least used to. i have ivans beauty which is a cross of mtn. ash and aronia. i have never read anything mentioning cyanide content in them. where did you come across this info?
But boiling is a proven way to reduce cyanide content in foods…
I grow Ivan’s beauty, shipova, and baby shipova.
My Ivan’s beauty fruited for me for the first time this year, after 2 years in the ground. The fruit is about the size of a large blueberry with a nice hot pink color. The taste reminded me of aronia, but maybe a bit more bitter and a bit less astringent. IMO, not really enjoyable fresh, but might make a tasty jam or jelly. The tree is tough and attractive though, so I think I’ll grow more as ornamentals.
To me, shipovas are in a different category, more pear than anything else. My standard shipova took a decade to fruit, but it was worth the wait: silky smooth and very sweet fruit. My baby shipova bloomed after 2-ish years in a 3 gallon pot, no fruit set.