The whitebeams are members of the family Rosaceae, comprising subgenus Aria of genus Sorbus, and hybrids involving species of this subgenus and members of subgenera Sorbus, Torminaria and Chamaemespilus. They are deciduous trees with simple or lobed leaves, arranged alternately. They are related to the rowans, and many of the endemic restricted-range apomictic microspecies of whitebeam in Europe are thought to derive from hybrids between S. aria and the European rowan S. aucuparia; some are also thought to be hybrids with the wild service tree S. torminalis, notably the service tree of Fontainebleau Sorbus latifolia in French woodlands.
Sorbus torminalis, with common names wild service tree, chequers, and checker tree, is a species of tree in the mountain ash or rowan genus (Sorbus) of the rose family (Rosaceae), that is native to Europe, parts of northern Africa and western Asia.
Abney Park cemetery is one of the "Magnificent Seven" cemeteries in London, England.
The Arran whitebeams are species of whitebeam endemic to the island of Arran, Ayrshire, Scotland.
Campanula latifolia, the giant bellflower, is a species of bellflower in the family Campanulaceae. It is also known as the large campanula and the wide-leaved bellflower. It is native to Europe and western Asia and is widely grown as an ornamental plant.
The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Hertfordensis Latifolia' was mentioned by Boulger in Gardener's Chronicle II. 12: 298 1879, but without description.
The elm cultivar Ulmus 'Hertfordensis Angustifolia' was mentioned by Boulger in Gardener's Chronicle II. 12: 298 1879, but without description.
The putative Wych Elm cultivar Ulmus glabra 'Latifolia' was identified in Audibert's Tonelle (1817) as U. campestrisLinn. [ = U. glabraHuds.] latifolia. The tree is reputed to have originated circa 1750 in or around Mechelen, and to have been widely planted throughout Belgium. A 1912 herbarium specimen from Oudenbosch, however, shows a hybrid leaf labelled Ulmus hollandica latifolia.
Sorbus pseudomeinichii, known as false rowan and Catacol whitebeam, is a rare tree endemic to the Isle of Arran in south west Scotland. It is believed to have arisen as a hybrid of the native rowan and the cut-leaved whitebeam which is in turn a rowan/Arran whitebeam hybrid. Until 2020 only two specimens of the Catacol whitebeam were known, at the time making it the rarest tree not only in Scotland, but joint rarest in the world with Wood's cycad, both with only one specimen living. A third was recorded as a sapling, but is believed to have been destroyed by deer. A seedling and grafted plants have also been grown in Edinburgh.
Sorbus pseudofennica is a species of plant in the family Rosaceae. Endemic to the Isle of Arran in Scotland, it is threatened by habitat loss. It is thought to be a naturally occurring hybrid between S. arranensis and S. aucuparia, probably with additional backcrossing with S. aucuparia. Sorbus arranensis is itself a hybrid between S. rupicola and S. aucuparia. Apomixis and hybridization are common in some groups of Sorbus species.
Karpatiosorbus subcuneata, the Somerset whitebeam, is a species of plant in the family Rosaceae. It is endemic to coastal north Devon and west Somerset in the United Kingdom. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Sorbus intermedia, the Swedish whitebeam, is a species of whitebeam found in southern Sweden, with scattered occurrences in easternmost Denmark (Bornholm), the far southwest of Finland, Estonia, Latvia and northern Poland.
Sorbus × hybrida, the oakleaf mountain ash, Swedish service-tree or Finnish whitebeam, is a hybrid species of whitebeam native to Norway, eastern Sweden, southwestern Finland, and locally in Latvia.
Sorbus alnifolia, also called alder-leafed whitebeam, Korean whitebeam, or Korean mountain ash, Chinese: 水榆花楸; pinyin: shui yu hua qiu; lit. 'water elm rowan', is a species of whitebeam native to eastern Asia in eastern and northern China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.
Sorbus mougeotii, the Vosges whitebeam or Mougeot's whitebeam, is a species of whitebeam native to the mountains of central and western Europe from the Pyrenees east through the Alps to Austria, and north to the Vosges Mountains.
Sorbus hupehensis is a species of rowan native to central and western China.
Sorbus minima, commonly known as the lesser whitebeam or least whitebeam, is a shrub belonging to the subgenus Aria (whitebeams) in the genus Sorbus. It is endemic to Wales where it grows at a few sites in Breconshire. It is an apomictic microspecies which reproduces asexually and so is reproductively isolated from its close relatives such as the Swedish whitebeam, S. intermedia. It probably originated as a hybrid between the rock whitebeam and the rowan. It was first discovered in 1893 by Augustin Ley, the vicar of Sellack in Herefordshire who travelled widely in Wales.
Karpatiosorbus devonensis is known by the English name of Devon whitebeam and locally as otmast. It is a species of whitebeam tree in the family Rosaceae. It is endemic to the British Isles, growing wild only in areas of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Ireland.
Karpatiosorbus houstoniae, or Houston's whitebeam, is a hybrid of two deciduous trees: the common whitebeam and the Bristol whitebeam. Only a single example of the hybrid is known to exist, at the Avon Gorge in Bristol, England. The only specimen grows on a cliff below Stokeleigh Camp at Leigh Woods in North Somerset and cannot be accessed without ropes.
