Kashmir rowan is a small, short-lived deciduous tree from the western Himalayas, grown for its clusters of white fruit that often persist into winter. It is a hardy garden tree rather than a houseplant, so give it a sunny to part-shaded spot with room to grow.
Family
Rosaceae (Rose family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water deeply during dry spells, especially in the first few years while it establishes.
Soil
Well-drained, moist loam; tolerates a range of soil types.
Temperature
Hardy to around -20 °C; suited to cool temperate climates.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Afghanistan, W. Himalaya
Climate
temperate
About
Sorbus cashmiriana, the Kashmir rowan, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae, native to the western Himalayas, including Kashmir.
It is a small, usually short-lived deciduous tree growing to 6–8 m (20–26 ft), with a trunk up to 25 cm (10 in) in diameter. The bark is smooth grey or red-grey. The leaves are 15–23 cm (6–9 in) long, pinnate, with 15–21 leaflets, dark green on top and lighter green underneath, the petiole reddish, the leaflets 3–5.5 cm (1–2 in) long and 1.5–2 cm broad, with serrated margins. The flowers are 7–10 mm in diameter, with five very pale pink petals and pale yellowish stamens, produced in corymbs in the spring. Pollination is by insects. The fruit is a white to whitish-pink pome 12–15 mm in diameter, ripening in the autumn and often persisting long after the leaf fall into winter.
How to grow it
It is a popular ornamental tree, grown for its clusters of white fruit. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Sorbus cashmiriana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.