mountain ash

plural mountain ashes

1. UKuncountableusuallyA European tree, rowan or, more specifically, European rowan, of species Sorbus aucuparia.

   2007, Tyler Guthrie, Mountain Ash: Formally Rowan Tree, Trinity College, Academic Dissertation.

   2 more examples

   On the verdant slope and down by the edge of the water, the bird-cherry and the mountain ash displayed their flowery garb of summer.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 280

   Various measures were taken to avoid it, most popular being the suspension of certain herbs and tree branches over the doorways of dwellings and stables. Commonly used greenery were tansy, honesty, garlic, St. John's Wort, mountain ash, roadside verbena.

   1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 271

2. uncountableusuallyAny of several trees in the genus Sorbus in North America.

   In the hills of Appalachia, in a cove that no living man will ever find, is a Mountain Ash unlike any other in the world.

   2011, Ruth Sims, The Legend of the Mountain Ash, unnumbered page

   2 more examples

   All three mountain-ashes are shrubs of climax and subclimax northern coniferous forest communities, along with speckled alder, Labrador tea, mountain and red maples, yellow birch, and bunchberry.

   1974, William M. Healy, Shrubs and Vines for Northeastern Wildlife, numbers 6-10, page 99

   To the front left of the house, just up from the sidewalk, was a mountain ash tree. Before I was born, Gramma Moody, planted the mountain ash tree there.

   2008, Elna Fone Nugent, Mountain Ash: A New England Memoir, page 30

3. uncountableusuallyA tree native to southeastern Australia, Eucalyptus regnans, the tallest of all flowering plants.

   McCarthy and Lindenmayer (1998) developed a model of the development of multi-aged Mountain Ash forest in response to fire. The model predicted the prevalence of multi-aged Mountain Ash forest as a function of the mean fire interval.

   2002, Brendan Mackey, David Lindenmayer, Malcolm Gill, Michael McCarthy, Janette Lindesay, editors, Wildlife, Fire and Future Climate: A Forest Ecosystem Analysis, page 42

   Synonyms: stringy gum, swamp gum, Tasmanian oak, Victorian ash

4. uncountableusuallyA Texan ash tree of species Fraxinus texensis.

   Synonyms: Texas ash

1. A town in Mountain Ash East community and Mountain Ash West community, Rhondda Cynon Taf borough county borough, Wales (OS grid ref ST0499). The communities have no councils.
2. An unincorporated community and coal town in Whitley County, Kentucky, United States.