Karpatiosorbus devoniensis
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New article for Trees and Shrubs Online.
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'Karpatiosorbus devoniensis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Common Names
- French Hales
Synonyms
- Pyrus devoniensis (E.F.Warb.) M.F.Fay & Christenh.
- Pyrus rotundifolia E.S.Marshall
- Sorbus devoniensis E.F.Warb.
- Sorbus latifolia Syme
Editorial Note
The text below is that of Bean (Bean 1981) who discussed this taxon under the name Sorbus devoniensis 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.
This was once regarded as the Devon form of S. latifolia, which it resembles in its brown, heavily speckled fruits. It is, however, quite distinct in its leaves, which are about one-and-a-half times as long as wide (about as long as wide in S. latifolia), acute at the apex, rounded at the base, shallowly lobed. The influence of S. torminalis shows in the large, sharp projecting teeth terminating the laterals and the sharpness of the minor teeth. S. devoniensis was first recorded in 1797 by Polwhele, who gave its name as ‘French Hail’, where the second word, like the commoner ‘Hales’ is undoubtedly a corruption of the French ‘alise’ for the fruits of the service trees (S. latifolia is ‘L’Alisier de Fontainebleau’). The word is translated, or rather taken over, by Chaucer in The Romaunt of the Rose – ‘notes, aleys and bollas’ (nuts, hales and bullace).
S. devoniensis is commonest in north Devon and its fruits were once sold in Barnstaple Market. It also occurs in south Devon, east Cornwall and southeast Ireland. It is a genuine species in the sense that it breeds true from seed, a fact first established in 1888 by T. R. Archer Briggs, author of The Flora of Plymouth. See also ‘Theophrasta’.