Sorbus latifolia

Plant Characteristics

Habit		tree
Height:	⇕	30 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 30. to 50 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 50.
Width:	⇔	20 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 20.
Lifespan:	⌛	perennial
Bloom:	❀	early spring, mid spring, late spring

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	sun
Features:	✓	deciduous, flowers, edible, fruit
USDA Zones:		5 to 9
Flower features:	❀	white

Scientific Names

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latifolia >

Sorbus latifolia (the service tree of Fontainebleau; French: alisier de Fontainebleau) is a species of whitebeam that is endemic to the area around Fontainebleau, south of Paris in France, where it has been known since the early eighteenth century.

It is a medium-sized deciduous tree that grows to between ten and twenty metres tall, with a trunk up to sixty centimetres in diameter. The leaves are five to ten centimetres long and broad (rarely, up to 20 cm long and 12 cm broad), but, most typically, the leaves are approximately as broad as they are long. (Latifolia is the Latin word for 'broad-leaved'.) They are green above, downy with greyish-white hairs beneath, with six to ten small triangular teeth along each margin. The flowers are between one centimetre and 1.5 centimetres in diameter, with five creamy-white petals and yellowish stamens; they are produced in corymbs about eight centimetres in diameter in mid-spring. The fruit is a globular, dull brownish-red, pome of ten to twelve millimetres diameter, dotted with large pale lenticels, ripening in late autumn.

The tree is of hybrid origin, between Sorbus torminalis (wild service tree) and a member of the Sorbus aria (whitebeam) group, but it exhibits apomixis and breeds true from seed.

Its edible fruit was sold in open-air markets at Fontainebleau until the 1950s.

Read about Sorbus latifolia in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Sorbus latifolia, Pers. (Pyrus rotundifolia, Bechst. P.intermedia var. latifolia, Ser. P. Aria var. latifolia, Hort. Torminaria latifolia, Dipp. S. Aria x S. torminalis). Tree, attaining 50 ft., similar to the preceding: lvs. broadly ovate to ovate, usually rounded at the base, pinnately lobed with short, broadly triangular, sharply serrate lobes, and with 6-9 pairs of veins, grayish or whitish tomentose beneath, 2 1/2 - 4 in. long; petioles l/2 - l in. long: fls. about 1/2 in. across, in broad, tomentose corymbs: fr. globose or globose-ovoid, about 1/2 in. high, orange to brownish red. May, June. Occasionally occurring in Cent. Eu. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

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External links

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