English whitebeam

Description

Sorbus anglica, the English whitebeam, is a species of whitebeam tree in the family Rosaceae. It is uncommonly found in Ireland and the United Kingdom, with an entire British population estimated at about 600 individuals. Sorbus anglica grows as a small tree or shrub, often with multiple stems. The leaves are broader than most other Sorbus, with lobes whose bases are incised up to one third of the way to the midrib. Sorbus anglica is found in several widely scattered sites in south-west England, Wales, and around Killarney in south-west Ireland. Sorbus anglica is usually found growing on cliffs, quarries and rocky hillsides. It appears to be indifferent to soil pH. Occasional specimens are known from oak woodland. Research suggests Sorbus anglica arose from a cross between Sorbus porrigentiformis and Sorbus aucuparia. 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.