Sorbus decora

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Sorbus decora
Showy mountain-ash (Sorbus decora) 6192.jpg
At the Akureyri Botanical Gardens
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Genus: Sorbus
Species:
S. decora
Binomial name
Sorbus decora
(Sarg.) C.K.Schneid.
Sorbus decora range map.png
Natural range includes southern tip of Greenland (not shown)
Synonyms
List
  • Pyrus americana var. decoraSarg.
  • Pyrus decora(Sarg.) Hyland
  • Sorbus americana var. decora(Sarg.) Sarg.
  • Aucuparia subvestita(Greene) Nieuwl.
  • Pyrus decora var. groenlandica(C.K.Schneid.) Fernald
  • Pyrus dumosa(Greene) Fernald
  • Pyrus groenlandica(C.K.Schneid.) K.R.Robertson
  • Pyrus sambucifoliaS.Watson & J.M.Coult.
  • Pyrus sitchensisB.L.Rob. & Fernald in
  • Pyrus subvestita(Greene) Farw.
  • Sorbus americanaPursh
  • Sorbus americana var. groenlandicaC.K.Schneid.
  • Sorbus americana var. sitchensis(M.Roem.) Sudw.
  • Sorbus decora var. groenlandica(C.K.Schneid.) G.N.Jones
  • Sorbus dumosaHouse
  • Sorbus groenlandica(C.K.Schneid.) Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Sorbus sambucifoliaDippel
  • Sorbus scopulinaHough
  • Sorbus subvestitaGreene

Sorbus decora, commonly known as the northern mountain ash, [1] showy mountain-ash, [2] Greenland mountain-ash, and dogberry, is a species of deciduous shrub or very small tree native to northeastern North America.

Contents

Description

Sorbus decora grows 4–10 metres (13–33 ft) tall. Its leaves are odd-pinnately compound, with 1117 leaflets. Each leaflet is 5–10 cm (2–4 in) long and 1–2.5 cm (38–1 in) wide. All parts are hairless to slightly hairy. Flowers are borne in 125- to more than 400-flowered panicles 6–25 cm (2+149+34 in) across. Each flower is 5–7.5 mm (1414 in) across and has five white petals 2.5–3.5 mm (33218 in) long, 1420 stamens, and carpels with 34 styles. The fruits (pomes) are bright red to orange-red and 4–7 mm (532932 in) across. [3]

Distribution and habitat

Sorbus decora occurs throughout the Laurentian Mixed Forest Province, the New England-Acadian forest region, the eastern Canadian boreal forests and Greenland. It cannot be found north of 62°15′N, which confines it the southern tip of Greenland, generally deeper up the western fjords, such as the Qinngua Valley. [4] [5]

Similar species

Sorbus decora is very similar to the closely related American mountain-ash (Sorbus americana). Like the American mountain-ash, the showy mountain-ash has odd-pinnately compound leaves and often large clusters of flowers and fruits. Showy mountain-ash can be distinguished by its shiny, sticky buds, [6] and its slightly larger flowers and fruit. [2] It is said to bloom a week earlier. [3]

Uses

It is often cultivated as an ornamental plant for its cold-hardiness, its attractive flowers, and its large clusters of small red berry-like pomes.

The fruits are an important source of food for wildlife, particularly birds in the winter and early spring.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rowan</span> Common name of a subgenus of flowering plants in the family Rosaceae

The rowans or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus Sorbus of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the Himalaya, southern Tibet and parts of western China, where numerous apomictic microspecies occur. The name rowan was originally applied to the species Sorbus aucuparia and is also used for other species in the genus Sorbus.

<i>Sorbus aucuparia</i> Species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae

Sorbus aucuparia, commonly called rowan and mountain-ash, is a species of deciduous tree or shrub in the rose family. It is a highly variable species, and botanists have used different definitions of the species to include or exclude trees native to certain areas. A recent definition includes trees native to most of Europe and parts of Asia, as well as northern Africa. The range extends from Madeira, the British Isles and Iceland to Russia and northern China. Unlike many plants with similar distributions, it is not native to Japan.

<i>Cormus domestica</i> Species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae

Cormus domestica, commonly known as service tree or sorb tree, is a species of tree native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia. It may be called true service tree, to distinguish it from wild service tree. It is the only species in the monotypic genus Cormus.

<i>Juglans cinerea</i> Species of tree

Juglans cinerea, commonly known as butternut or white walnut, is a species of walnut native to the eastern United States and southeast Canada.

<i>Cornus racemosa</i> Species of tree

Cornus racemosa, the northern swamp dogwood, gray dogwood, or panicle dogwood, is a shrubby plant native to southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States. It is a member of the dogwood genus Cornus and the family Cornaceae.

<i>Zanthoxylum simulans</i> Species of flowering plant

Zanthoxylum simulans, the Chinese-pepper, Chinese prickly-ash or flatspine prickly-ash, is a flowering plant in the family Rutaceae, native to eastern China and Taiwan. It is one of several species of Zanthoxylum from which Sichuan pepper is produced.

<i>Tecoma stans</i> Species of tree

Tecoma stans is a species of flowering perennial shrub in the trumpet vine family, Bignoniaceae, that is native to the Americas. Common names include yellow trumpetbush, yellow bells, yellow elder, ginger Thomas. Tecoma stans is the official flower of the United States Virgin Islands and the floral emblem of The Bahamas.

<i>Sorbus cashmiriana</i>

Sorbus cashmiriana, the Kashmir rowan, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae, native to the western Himalayas, including Kashmir.

<i>Sorbus americana</i> Species of tree

The tree species Sorbus americana is commonly known as the American mountain-ash. It is a deciduous perennial tree, native to eastern North America.

<i>Thalictrum dioicum</i> Species of flowering plant

Thalictrum dioicum, the early meadow-rue or quicksilver-weed, is a species of herbaceous plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Plants are typically upright growing woodland natives from Colorado Rocky Mountain forests to central and eastern North America including parts of south eastern Canada. This species has dioecious plants, with male and female flowers on separate plants blooming in early to mid spring.

<i>Sorbus sitchensis</i>

Sorbus sitchensis, commonly known as western mountain ash and Sitka mountain-ash, is a small species of shrub of north-western North America.

<i>Sorbus commixta</i> Species of tree

Sorbus commixta, the Japanese rowan, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae, native to central and eastern China, Korea, Japan, and Sakhalin.

Sorbus oligodonta, also known as the kite-leaf rowan and white-fruited rowan, is a species of rowan found from the eastern Himalaya to south-central China, northern Vietnam and Myanmar.

<i>Scandosorbus intermedia</i> Species of whitebeam found in northern Europe

Scandosorbus intermedia or, formerly, Sorbus intermedia, the Swedish whitebeam, is a species of whitebeam found in southern Sweden, with scattered occurrences in Estonia, Latvia, easternmost Denmark (Bornholm), the far southwest of Finland, and northern Poland.

<i>Hedlundia hybrida</i> Hybrid species of tree

Hedlundia hybrida, the oakleaf mountain ash, Swedish service-tree or Finnish whitebeam, is a species of whitebeam native to Norway, eastern Sweden, south-western Finland, and locally in Latvia.

<i>Alniaria alnifolia</i> Species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae

Alniaria alnifolia, also called alder-leafed whitebeam, Korean whitebeam, or Korean mountain ash, Korean: 팥배나무; RR: Patbaenamu; MR: p'atpaenamu; lit. 'red bean pear tree' 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.

<i>Sorbus hupehensis</i> Species of tree

Sorbus hupehensis, also known as Hupeh rowan or Hubei rowan, is a species of rowan native to central and western China. It is found between Qinghai and Gansu in the west, Yunnan in the south, Jiangxi in the southeast, and Shandong in the east.

<i>Sorbus sargentiana</i> Species of tree

Sorbus sargentiana, commonly known as Sargent's rowan is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. It is native to southwestern Sichuan and northern Yunnan in China, where it grows at altitudes of 2,000–3,200 m (6,560–10,500 ft).

<i>Thalictrum alpinum</i> Species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae

Thalictrum alpinum is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family known by the common names alpine meadow-rue and arctic meadow-rue. It is native to Arctic and alpine regions of North America and Eurasia, including Alaska, northern Canada, and Greenland, and it occurs in cold, wet, boggy habitats in high mountains farther south.

<i>Sorbus randaiensis</i>

Sorbus randaiensis is a species of deciduous tree in the family Rosaceae. It is endemic to the mountain areas of central Taiwan, with altitude 1,800m to 3,200m, mostly spotted in the forest of Xueshan, Hehuan Mountain, Mount Xiluan, and Nenggao Mountain. It is a tree 3–8 m tall with white flowers and reddish fruit.

References

  1. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Sorbus decora". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  2. 1 2 Chayka, Katy (2016). "Sorbus decora (Showy Mountain-ash)". MinnesotaWildflowers.info.
  3. 1 2 Zika, Peter F.; Bailleul, Stéphane M. (2014). "Sorbus decora". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 9. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  4. The Greenland Mountain Birch Zone, Southwest Greenland. p. 4. ISBN   9788763512046.
  5. Böcher, Tyge W. (2010). "Birch woodlands and tree growth in southern Greenland". Ecography. 2 (4): 218–221. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0587.1979.tb01292.x.
  6. Farrar, J.L. (1995). Trees in Canada. Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry and Whitside/Canadian Forest Service.