A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Sorbus aucuparia
It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree typically growing to 8–10 m tall. The bark is smooth, silvery grey on young trees, becoming scaly grey-brown and occasionally fissured on old trees. The shoots are green and variably hairy at first, becoming grey-brown and hairless; the buds are conspicuous, purple-brown, and often densely hairy. The leaves are pinnate, 10–22 cm long and 6-12 cm broad, with 9–19 (most often 13–15) leaflets; each leaflet is 3–7 cm long and 15–23 mm broad, with a coarsely serrated margin; they are variably hairy, particularly the petiole and leaf veins on the underside. The hermaphrodite flowers are produced in large terminal corymbs 8–15 cm diameter with up to 250 flowers, the individual flowers 1 cm diameter, with five creamy-white petals, and are insect pollinated. This occurs in May. The fruit is a small pome 6–9 mm (rarely up to 14 mm) diameter, green at first, ripening bright red in late summer, and containing up to eight (most commonly two) small seeds.
Small village at the mountains
Spotted on Aug 26, 2012
Submitted on Nov 17, 2012
1 Comment
Finally identified as Sorbus aucuparia, Rowan