- Rowan is monocormic or polycormic, particularly if subjected to grazing pressure. Branch angles are acute to stem, forming a narrow crown, with a monopodial branching pattern (Kullman 1986; Raspé et al. 2000). On abandoned subalpine hay meadows and pastures, rowans’ growth form change along with elevation, at higher elevations rowans are shorter, their stems are thinner, and they have more shoots per plant than at lower elevations (Durak et al. 2016).
- Rowan is generally considered a hardy pioneer species, which only occasionally forms pure stands and usually occurs at low density in forest (Żywiec and Ledwoń 2008, Durak et al. 2016, Holeksa et al., 2017). Its ecological role is highest in boreal and subalpine forests (Kullman 1986, Holeksa et al. 2017). In disturbed patches of the subalpine spruce forests, rowan is often the first species forming short-lived thickets before spruce stands regenerate (Żywiec and Ledwoń 2008, Holeksa et al. 2017).
- distributed through almost all of Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, western Siberia and North Africa
- Sprouting is very effective mechanism of extending the lifespan of seedlings suppressed in the forest understory (Żywiec and Holeksa 2012).
- There is decline in reproductive investment just before death (Pasendorfer et al 2019).
- young rowans are sensitive to snow loads \cite{Kune__2014} and wind exposure, similarly altering growth (mainly height reduction) in different genotypes \cite{S_b__2000}.
- Rowan is masting species what means that fruiting is intermittent and highly synchronized among individuals, even at the scale of tens of kilometres (Kobro et al. 2003, Żywiec et al. 2012; Bogdziewicz et al. 2024). Masting in rowan helps to reduce severe seed predation and increases dispersal rates by frugivores (Satake 2004, Żywiec et al. 2013a, Seget et al 2022ab). In high fruit crop years, individual reproductive success decreases with increasing density of conspecifics \cite{_ywiec_2017}.
- tree economics: reproductive architecture vs. leaf, wood and stem \cite{Zhang_2023}