Sorbus

Sorbus
European Rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) with fruit
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Subfamily: Amygdaloideae[1]
Tribe: Maleae
Subtribe: Malinae
Genus: Sorbus
L.
Subgenera

Sorbus is a genus of about 100–200 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family Rosaceae. Species of Sorbus (s.l.) are commonly known as whitebeam, rowan, service tree, and mountain-ash. 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 [2][3][4][5] treat Sorbus in a narrower sense to include only the pinnate leaved species of subgenus Sorbus, raising several of the other subgenera to generic rank.

Red rowan

Sorbus is unrelated to the true ash trees which belong to the genus Fraxinus, although the leaves are superficially similar.

As treated in its broad sense, the genus is divided into two main and three or four small subgenera (with more recent generic assignments in parentheses):

  • Sorbus subgenus Micromeles (genus Aria), an indistinct group of a few east Asian species (e.g. Sorbus alnifolia, Korean whitebeam) with narrow leaves; doubtfully distinct from and often included in subgenus Aria. Distribution: temperate northeast Asia.

Sorbus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some moth species—see list of Lepidoptera that feed on Sorbus.

Wine

Sorbus was also a fortified Finnish fruit wine flavoured with rowan berries (sold until August 21, 2010). Sorbus domestica is used to flavour some apple wines, see Apfelwein.

References

  1. D. Potter, T. Eriksson, R. C. Evans, S. Oh, J. E. E. Smedmark, D. R. Morgan, M. Kerr, K. R. Robertson, M. Arsenault, T. A. Dickinson & C. S. Campbell (2007). "Phylogeny and classification of Rosaceae" (PDF). Plant Systematics and Evolution. 266 (1–2): 5–43. doi:10.1007/s00606-007-0539-9. Note that this publication pre-dates the 2011 International Botanical Congress which mandates that the combined subfamily referred to in the paper as Spiraeoideae must be called Amygdaloideae.
  2. Robertson, K. R., J. B. Phipps, J. R. Rohrer, and P. G. Smith. 1991. A Synopsis of Genera in Maloideae (Rosaceae). Systematic Botany 16: 376–394.
  3. McAllister, H. 2005. The Genus Sorbus: Mountain Ash and Other Rowans. Richmond, Surrey, UK: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  4. Potter, D., T. Eriksson, R. C. Evans, S.-H. Oh, J. E. E. Smedmark, D.R. Morgan, M. S. Kerr, and C. S. Campbell. (2007). Phylogeny and classification of Rosaceae. Plant Systematics and Evolution. 266(1–2): 5–43.
  5. Campbell C. S., R. C. Evans, D. R. Morgan, T. A. Dickinson, and M. P. Arsenault. 2007. Phylogeny of subtribe Pyrinae (formerly the Maloideae, Rosaceae): Limited resolution of a complex evolutionary history. Pl. Syst. Evol. 266: 119–145.

Further reading

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