Whitebeam poem

This was poem of the week in the Times Literary Supplement on 29th July 2014:

Whitebeam

The sixty-miles-per-hour plants, the growth
that lines the summer corridors of sight
along our major roads, the overlooked
backdrop to Preston 37 miles.
Speed camera foliage; the white flowers
of Mays and Junes, the scarlet fruits of autumn
lay wasted in the getting from A to B.
Hymn to forward-thinking and planting schemes,
though some seem in two minds: the greenwood leaves
are white-furred, have a downy underside
as if the heartwood knew in its heart of hearts
the days among beech and oak would lead to these
single file times, these hard postings
and civilised itself with handkerchiefs.

Paul Farley (2003)

Sorbus domestica in Cornwall

There is an account in BSBI News No. 125 January 2014 pages 37-38 by Ian Bennallick and David Pearman of the discovery of the true service tree (Sorbus domestica) growing wild in Cornwall on a cliff in the upper Camel Estuary.

The species has been known in wild situations in the British Isles since 1993 when it was discovered on cliffs in Glamorgan, south Wales.  After this it was also found at sites in the lower Wye and Severn Valleys and the debate continues as to whether it is genuinely wild in the UK or has arisen from ancient introductions.

The Cornish example perhaps strengthens the case for its being a native and some of the older literature does mention Cornish sites for the species, though none are specific enough to be followed up.

New British Sorbi

The April 2014 edition of the New Journal of Botany (Volume 4 Number 1) contains the following article: British Sorbus (Rosaceae): six new species, two hybrids and a new subgenus by T. C. G. Rich, D. Green, L. Houston, M. Lepší, S. Ludwig and J. Pellicer.

The new species are Evans’s Whitebeam (Sorbus evansii), Green’s Whitebeam (S. greenii), Herefordshire Whitebeam (S. herefordensis), Rich’s Whitebeam (S. richii), Sell’s Whitebeam (S. sellii) and Observatory Whitebeam (S. spectans).  These all grow around the Severn and Severn estuary and the article gives maps and details of locations with detailed descriptions of the species should anyone want to go and see them.

The new hybrids are  Sorbus aucuparia x S. minima where a single example has been found in the Brecon Beacons and Sorbus porrigentiformis x. S. torminalis with two trees on a cliff in Monmouthshire.

All these species and hybrids have been defined as distinct using genetic analysis techniques.

The new subgenus is Triparens, set up to cover the Swedish Whitebeam (Sorbus intermedia) and S. x liljeforsii, the backcross of S. intermedia with S. aucuparia.

Details of the New Journal of Botany are here: http://www.bsbi.org.uk/NJB_Flyer.pdf

Sorbus as a colour

Someone has named a colour 'Sorbus'.  It is a green with some black to darken it:

http://www.colourlovers.com/color/708214/Sorbus

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.

Sorbus coinage

An Armenian whitebeam, Sorbus hajastana, described as a rare and endangered palaeoendemic of the Caucasus, has featured on an Armenian coin. 

In March 2011 the Central Bank of Armenia issued this commemorative silver coin designed by Eduard Kurghinyan featuring the “Aroseni Hayastanyan” (Armenian sorb).

The specific name of the tree derives from the word Hayastan which is what Armenians call Armenia.