Reticulate evolution in Sorbus

There is a paper in the American Journal of Botany for September 2012 by Durkovic et al. on the significance of leaf traits in the evolution of Sorbi.

It is deeply scientific as this excerpt from the abstract will show "A recently developed atomic force microscopy technique, PeakForce quantitative nanomechanical mapping, was used to characterize the topography of cell wall surfaces of tracheary elements and to map the reduced Young’s modulus of elasticity."

Further details at: http://www.amjbot.org/content/early/2012/08/23/ajb.1100593.abstract

Whitebeam sculpture

An open air sculpture has been created in the churchyard of St. John the Baptist church in Chester, UK, as a place for reflection.  The sculpture was created by Nick Horrigan using wood from a diseased whitebeam tree that grew on the site of what was St James's chapel, a place of pilgrimage.

The species of whitebeam has not, so far as I know, been given but, from the size of the wood, it might have been a Swedish whitebeam, Sorbus intermedia.

There is a red sandstone rock in the centre that can be used as a seat.