''Sorbus glabrescens'' (white-fruited rowan) is a species of

rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus ''Sorbus'' is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of ''Sorbus'' (''s.l.'') are commonly known as whitebeam, r ...

native to

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

.Rushforth, K. (1999). ''Trees of Britain and Europe''. Collins . It is a small to medium-sized

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

growing to 8–15 m tall with a rounded crown and dark grey bark and stout shoots. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are glaucous blue-green above, paler beneath, 10–26 cm long,

pinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

with 11-17 oval leaflets 3–5.5 cm long and 1–2 cm broad, broadest near the middle, rounded at the end with a short acuminate apex, and very finely serrated margins. They change to an orange or red in late autumn, much later than most other rowan species. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are 8 mm diameter, with five white petals and 20 yellowish-white stamens; they are produced in

corymb Corymb is a botanical term for an inflorescence with the flowers growing in such a fashion that the outermost are borne on longer pedicels than the inner, bringing all flowers up to a common level. A corymb has a flattish top with a superficial ...

s 9–15 cm diameter in late spring to early summer. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is a pome 7–8 mm diameter, white with a small persistent pinkish carpel, maturing in late autumn; the fruit stalks are distinctively red. The fruit commonly persist long into the winter after leaf fall; after being softened by frost they are readily eaten by

thrushes The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World flyca ...

and

waxwings The waxwings are three species of passerine birds classified in the genus ''Bombycilla''. They are pinkish-brown and pale grey with distinctive smooth plumage in which many body feathers are not individually visible, a black and white eyestri ...

, which disperse the

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s.Mitchell, A. F. (1974). ''A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe''. Collins s ''Sorbus hupehensis''/ref> It is closely related to ''

Sorbus oligodonta ''Sorbus oligodonta'', the kite-leaf rowan, is a species of rowan native to northern Yunnan, southeastern Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditi ...

'', which differs in having the leaves less glaucous with the leaflets broadest near the apex, and pink fruit; the two are sometimes treated as conspecific.Flora of China
''Sorbus oligodonta''
/ref> Both are tetraploid apomictic species which breed true without pollination.

Cultivation and uses

Outside of its native range, it is widely grown as an

ornamental tree Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

for its decorative white fruit in western Europe and the Pacific Northwest of North America. In the past, plants in cultivation were commonly misidentified as, or treated as synonyms of, '' Sorbus hupehensis'', a species from further north in China (

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

) that also has white fruit. ''S. hupehensis'' may be distinguished by its slender shoots; it is much less common in cultivation.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3927422 glabrescens