Micromeles rhamnoides
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Micromeles rhamnoides' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Synonyms
- Aria rhamnoides (Decne.) H.Osashi & Iketani
- Pyrus rhamnoides (Decne.) Hook.f.
- Sorbus rhamnoides (Decne.) Render
Editorial Note
The text below is that of Bean (Bean 1981) who discussed this taxon under the name Sorbus rhamnoides. 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, August 2023.
A deciduous tree said to attain a large size in the wild; branchlets, leaf-undersides, inflorescence-branches and calyx-tubes at first clad with white hairs, soon glabrous. Leaves leathery, 3 to 5 in. long, 11⁄8 to 2 in. wide, elliptic-lanceolate, narrowed to an acuminate apex, cuneate at the base, margins finely toothed throughout; lateral veins in twelve to fourteen pairs, forward-pointing and slightly arching, impressed above and very prominent beneath; petiole slender, 3⁄8 to 3⁄4 in. long. Inflorescence a slenderly branched, paniculate cluster; flowers white, about 3⁄8 in. wide; styles two. Fruits globose, about 1⁄4 in. wide, without lenticels, brownish (?) when ripe; calyx deciduous.
A native of the eastern Himalaya from Nepal eastward and of upper Burma (also of Yunnan if S. paniculata Yü and Tsai be included in it). It is little known but may now be in gardens from seeds collected recently in Sikkim. Ascending to about 10,500 ft, it should be hardy but is unlikely to win any more regard as an ornamental than S. epidendron (page 424) to which it is related.
An interesting sorbus growing in the Hillier Arboretum, Hampshire, received there as S. rhamnoides, differs markedly from that species in its rotund-elliptic or obovate-elliptic leaves abruptly acuminate at the apex, still slightly hairy beneath in autumn, with only seven to ten pairs of rather widely spaced lateral veins not impressed above, and with sparsely lenticellate oblong-ovoid to ellipsoid fruits about 5⁄8 in. long and 3⁄8 in. wide. It is not matched by any specimen in the Kew Herbarium.
