Lookalikes

False acacia or rowan?

Both have feathered leaves and grow in streets and gardens.

The quickest check

The quickest check is the leaflet edge. False acacia: smooth the whole way round. Rowan: toothed to within 1 to 2 cm of the base. No leaves on the tree? Check the older trunk.

At a glance

Look at	False acacia	Rowan
Leaflet edge	Smooth the whole way round	Toothed to within 1 to 2 cm of the base
Older trunk	Greyish brown, deep cracks crossing into diamonds	Smooth silvery grey, with short dark dashes
Fruit on the tree	Flat dark brown pods, about 10 cm long	Scarlet berries about 1 cm, dozens to a head
Where a leaf joins a strong shoot	Two short spines, a tiny bud between them	A fat purple bud edged with grey hairs

Four ways to tell them apart

Leaflet edgeLeaves

False acacia: leaflet edge — False acaciaSmooth the whole way round

Rowan: leaflet edge — RowanToothed to within 1 to 2 cm of the base

Older trunkBark

False acacia: older trunk — False acaciaGreyish brown, deep cracks crossing into diamonds

Rowan: older trunk — RowanSmooth silvery grey, with short dark dashes

Fruit on the treePods

False acaciaFlat dark brown pods, about 10 cm long

RowanScarlet berries about 1 cm, dozens to a head

Where a leaf joins a strong shootTwigs and buds

False acaciaTwo short spines, a tiny bud between them

RowanA fat purple bud edged with grey hairs

Think you can tell them apart now? Try the tree quiz: real photographs, and what gives each tree away.Take the quiz

The two trees

False acacia

Robinia pseudoacacia

False acacia is an open tree with twisting branches. Its long leaves carry many small oval leaflets, and its bark is deeply furrowed. Scented white pea flowers hang in clusters in June.

Rowan

Sorbus aucuparia

Rowan is a small, open tree with smooth silvery grey bark and feathered leaves of 13 to 15 toothed leaflets. From August it carries flat heads of scarlet berries.

How to identify rowan →

Their other lookalikes

False acacia or common ash?Quickest check: the edge of a leaflet

False acacia or honey locust?Quickest check: the trunk

False acacia or tree of heaven?Quickest check: the base of a leaflet

Rowan or common whitebeam?Quickest check: the blades on one stalk

Rowan or hawthorn?Quickest check: the whole leaf

Rowan or honey locust?Quickest check: the leaflet edge

In the app

See them side by side in Treely

Both trees, part by partLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed through the year
Every lookalike side by sideThe checks that settle it, for every pair people mix up
A short round each dayUntil you can tell them apart at a glance
The full GuideBoth trees written up in full, with where to find them

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Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.

Photographs: bmapp02 (CC0), 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi) (CC BY 4.0), steve_mcwilliam (CC0), bobwardell (CC0), loverseed (CC0), anguspritchard (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.