Karpatiosorbus bristoliensis
Credits
New article for Trees and Shrubs Online.
Recommended citation
'Karpatiosorbus bristoliensis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Synonyms
- Pyrus bristoliensis (Wilmott) M.F.Fay & Christenh.
- Sorbus bristoliensis Wilmott
Editorial Note
The text below is that of Bean (Bean 1981) who discussed this taxon under the name Sorbus bristoliensis below his article on S. latifolia (now Karpatiosorbus latifolia). We have created this hybrid article – Bean’s text under the correct modern name, with appropriate synonymy – whilst we await sponsorship to enable a full revision of this genus to be written. We are re-organising the Sorbus sensu lato articles in this way to enable a new revision of Sorbus sensu stricto to commence in 2023, and to bring the nomenclature of this complex group of plants up to date in line with modern treatments.
TC, September 2023.
A shrub or small tree to about 30 ft high; branchlets slender, glabrous by autumn, red-brown, sparsely lenticellate; winter-buds small, the scales glabrous except at the margins and the tips, brownish green with darker edges. Leaves of firm texture, oval, rhombic-elliptic or slightly obovate, obtuse at the apex, broad-cuneate at the base, 21⁄2 to 4 in. long, 11⁄2 to 3 in. wide (but on short sterile spurs narrowly obovate, tapered at the base), light green, glabrous, scarcely glossy above, clad beneath with a thin tomentum through which the undersurface shows green, lateral veins straight, in eight to ten pairs, the lower three or four ending in distinct but shallow lobes, which intergrade upward with less distinct lobes and finally with double or simple teeth. Flowers about 1⁄2 in. wide, white, in May or early June; inflorescence branches woolly, almost glabrous by autumn and then light brown. Anthers pink. Fruits broadly ellipsoid, the largest almost 1⁄2 in. long, bright reddish orange, glossy, sparsely dotted with small lenticels.
A very ornamental native species, known only from the Avon Gorge near Bristol (Leigh Woods and Clifton Down). It is triploid.
From the Supplement (Vol. V)
S. bristoliensis – There are two examples at Westonbirt, Gloucestershire, in Broad Drive, measuring 36 × 21⁄4 ft (1972) and 33 × 21⁄2 ft (1977), both planted in 1945.