Rowan tree

Description

Sorbus pseudovilmorinii is a variable deciduous flowering tree. Height: Ultimate height of 4 meters to 7.5 meters. Leaves: Pinnate, with a fern-like appearance. Flowers: White. Fruit: Variable, often crimson in color, becoming white or white with crimson flecks as it reaches maturity, typically by October. Sorbus is the ancient Latin name for the fruit of the service tree, Sorbus. ‘Service’ and ‘Sorbus’ are cognates. Pseudovilmorinii means ‘false vilmorinii’. Native to northern Vietnam, Tibet, and western China, including Yunnan province, from whence the most attractive specimens can be found. Grows in mountains, forest scrub, or coniferous or mixed forests. Prefers a sunny or partially shaded site with free-draining soil. Dislikes heavy clay soils. Sorbus pseudovilmorinii is the parent of several Sorbus hybrids. Sorbus is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of Sorbus are commonly known as whitebeam, rowan (mountain-ash) and service tree. The exact number of species is disputed depending on the circumscription of the genus, and also due to the number of apomictic microspecies, which some treat as distinct species, but others group in a smaller number of variable species. Recent treatments classify Sorbus in a narrower sense to include only the pinnate leaved species of subgenus Sorbus, raising several of the other subgenera to generic rank. Sorbus is not closely related to the true ash trees which belong to the genus Fraxinus, although the leaves are superficially similar.