Sorbus matsumurana (Mak.) Koehne

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Sorbus matsumurana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/sorbus/sorbus-matsumurana/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Genus

Synonyms

  • Pyrus matsumurana Mak.

Glossary

calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
ellipsoid
An elliptic solid.
glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glaucous
Grey-blue often from superficial layer of wax (bloom).
globose
globularSpherical or globe-shaped.
herbarium
A collection of preserved plant specimens; also the building in which such specimens are housed.
obtuse
Blunt.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Sorbus matsumurana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/sorbus/sorbus-matsumurana/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

A shrub or small tree; branchlets glabrous; winter-buds about 12 in. long, glabrous except for a few hairs at the edge of the scales. Leaves with four to six pairs of leaflets, which are oblong, 78 to 212 in. long, up to 78 in. wide, obtuse and acuminately tipped or subacute at the apex, glabrous, glaucous green above, glaucous beneath, toothed mostly only in the upper half. Flowers in small, glabrous clusters 2 to 3 in. wide. Calyx-lobes with a few rusty hairs at the edge. Petals much longer than the stamens. Styles five. Fruits red, ellipsoid to globose, about 38 in. or slightly more long.

Native of the mountains of Japan (Hokkaido and northern part of the main island). It is probably not in cultivation (1979), and judging from herbarium specimens it is unlikely to be of much ornamental value. In previous editions it was stated to have been introduced in 1912, but the plant received by Kew in that year from Messrs Lemoine proved to be not S. matsumurana but S. commixta. The confusion may have arisen from the fact that plants raised by Späth from seed sent from the Arnold Arboretum as Pyrus discolor (or P. aucuparia var. discolor) were pronounced by Koehne in 1901 to be S. matsumurana, at a time when he knew them only as young seedlings. This introduction was in fact S. commixta. Another sorbus fairly common in collections, distributed originally by Messrs Marchant as S. matsumurana, is also a form of S. commixta and is mentioned under that species.

S. matsumurana finds its nearest ally in S. sitchensis of N. America.