You asked which rowan it was, but the leaves tell a different story
The fruit looks like rowan berries, but the leaves are the deciding clue in the photograph. Orange-red berries combined with simple, distinctly lobed leaves point elsewhere.
This is a whitebeam rather than a rowan, and the photograph fits Swedish whitebeam, Sorbus intermedia, best. The leaves are decisive: rowan has pinnate leaves made up of many small leaflets, whereas your photograph shows broad, simple leaves with toothed and lobed edges. The fruit also grows in clusters, which can make the tree look like a rowan from a distance.
September in Sweden is exactly when Swedish whitebeam fruit glows orange-red, so the season fits the identification well. To double-check on the tree, look for grey-white or felted leaf undersides, a typical feature of whitebeam. Next spring, you may also see dense clusters of white flowers.
View the case – Case #101
The reader’s original question
What type of rowan is this?
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- Original reader contribution ↗Reader question