As a native to Europe and Asia, European mountain ash has now been widely planted in northern North America as an ornamental. It is primarily cultivated for its compound green leaves and attractive clusters of fall fruit.

The cultivar ‘Cardinal Royal’ has been selected for its brilliant red berries, as oppossed to the more typical orange of the species. 

As a small deciduous tree, mountain ash grows 20-40’ tall with a narrow, upright-oval crown, usually rounding and opening with age. It bears compound, odd-pinnate, flat medium green leaves which have 9-15 serrate, oblong-lanceolate leaflets (each leaflet being 2.5” long). In May small, white, 5-petaled flowers (1/3” across) appear on flattened corymbs. Later in the summer these flower clusters give rise to pendant clusters of orange-red berry-like drupes, which are readily consumed by song birds. In the fall leaves turn yellow to a very striking reddish-purple.