Tibetan whitebeam

Description

Sorbus thibetica the Tibetan whitebeam, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae, native to south western China and the Himalayas. Growing to 20 m (66 ft) tall by 15 m (49 ft) broad, it is a substantial deciduous tree. Like other whitebeams, the undersides of the leaves are white, giving a dramatic effect when the wind blows through them. The more compact cultivar 'John Mitchell' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Sorbus is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of Sorbus are commonly known as whitebeam, rowan (mountain-ash) and service tree. The exact number of species is disputed depending on the circumscription of the genus, and also due to the number of apomictic microspecies, which some treat as distinct species, but others group in a smaller number of variable species. Recent treatments classify Sorbus in a narrower sense to include only the pinnate leaved species of subgenus Sorbus, raising several of the other subgenera to generic rank. Sorbus is not closely related to the true ash trees which belong to the genus Fraxinus, although the leaves are superficially similar.