The whitebeams are members of the family

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus '' Rosa''. The family includes herbs, shrubs, and trees. Most species are deciduous, but som ...

, tribe

Malinae Malinae is the name for the apple subtribe in the rose family, Rosaceae. This name is required by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, which came into force in 2011 (article 19) for any group at the subtribe rank t ...

, comprising a number of

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

simple Simple or SIMPLE may refer to: *Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple Arts and entertainment * ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track * "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018 * "Simple", a song by John ...

or lobe-leaved species formerly lumped together within ''

Sorbus ''Sorbus'' is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of ''Sorbus'' ('' s.str.'') are commonly known as rowan or mountain-ash. The genus used to include species commonly known as whitebeam, cheque ...

'' s.l. Many whitebeams are the result of extensive intergeneric hybridisation involving the genera ''

'' (''

Sorbus aucuparia ''Sorbus aucuparia'', commonly called rowan (, also ) and mountain-ash, is a species of deciduous tree or shrub in the rose family. The tree has a slender trunk with smooth bark, a loose and roundish crown, and its leaves are pinnate in pairs o ...

'' in particular), ''

Aria In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...

'', '' Torminalis'' and ''

Chamaemespilus ''Chamaemespilus'' is a genus of shrubs in the family Rosaceae. It is monotypic, being represented by the single species ''Chamaemespilus alpina'', commonly known as false medlar or dwarf whitebeam. It is native to the mountains of central and so ...

''. As an effect, they are commonly apomicts (reproducing solely asexually) and many have very restricted ranges. The best known species is the common whitebeam ('' Aria edulis''), a columnar tree which grows to tall by broad, with clusters of white flowers in spring followed by speckled red berries in autumn (fall).

Appearance

In many species, the surface of the leaves is an unremarkable mid-green, but the underside is pale to almost white (hence the name) with pale grey or white

hairs Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and fin ...

, transforming the appearance of the tree in strong winds, as noted by the poet Meredith: "flashing as in gusts the sudden-lighted whitebeam". It is also described as the "wind-beat whitebeam" in

Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Society of Jesus, Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame places him among the leading English poets. His Prosody (linguistics), prosody – notably his concept of sprung ...

' poem "The Starlight Night".

Ecology

The berries are a favourite of fruit-eating birds like thrushes and

waxwing The waxwings are three species of passerine birds classified in the genus ''Bombycilla''. They are pinkish-brown and pale grey with distinctive smooth plumage in which many body feathers are not individually visible, a black and white eyestripe, ...

s, though are less palatable (drier, less juicy) than rowan berries. Whitebeams are sometimes used as

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

l food plants by species of

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

, including the

short-cloaked moth The short-cloaked moth (''Nola cucullatella'') is a moth of the family Nolidae. It is distributed through most of Europe. It was collected in 2008 in the greater Vancouver area of British Columbia (Westham Island). Vancouver is a major shipping po ...

Uses

These trees are often grown in parks and large gardens. The

cultivars A cultivar is a kind of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and which retains those traits when propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue cult ...

''A. edulis'' 'Lutescens' and ''A. edulis'' 'Majestica' have gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. It includes the full range of cultivated p ...

. The tough, hard wood is a deep orange when wet, and pale yellow after drying. The fruit is edible, but only when nearly rotten.

Taxonomy

Whitebeams are not a natural

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

taxonomic grouping; they are representatives of several genera of the

subtribe, all of which were traditionally treated within a broadly circumscribed genus ''

'' s.l. This treatment of ''Sorbus'' was however was found to be

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

, comprising two monophyletic clades that were not particularly closely related to each other. Now, ''Sorbus'' is more often defined in a narrow sense to include only the

rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus'' of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the Himalaya ...

s or mountain-ashes, with all the other former members being elevated into genera in their own right. Species which are commonly referred to as whitebeams can be found in several genera, five of which are the result of intergeneric hybridisation.

Non-hybridogenous whitebeam genera

In western Eurasia

* ''

'' * ''

In eastern Eurasia

* ''

Alniaria ''Alniaria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rosaceae, native to China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Far Eastern Russia. It was split off from ''Sorbus'' (''sensu lato ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used i ...

'' * '' Griffitharia'' * '' Pleiosorbus'' * '' Micromeles'' * '' Dunnaria'' * '' Thomsonaria'' * '' Wilsonaria''

Hybridogenous whitebeam genera

* ''

Hedlundia ''Hedlundia'' is a genus of plants in the rose family (biology), family (of Rosaceae). They are shrubs or small trees that have a Hybrid (biology), hybrid origin involving crosses between ''Whitebeam, Aria'' and ''Sorbus'' sensu stricto. There ar ...

'' - ''Aria'' × ''Sorbus'' hybrids * ''

Karpatiosorbus ''Karpatiosorbus'' (Synonymy: ''Sorbus'' subgenus ''Tormaria'' Májovsky & Bernátová = ''S''. subgenus ''Aria'' x subgenus ''Torminaria'') is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rosaceae, native to Europe, including Crimea, and Algeria. S ...

'' - ''Aria'' × ''Torminalis'' hybrids * ''

Majovskya ''Majovskya'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Rosaceae. They are shrubs or small trees, they appear to have arisen via hybridization events between the clades ''Aria'' (Pers.) Host and '' Chamaemespilus'' (L.) Crantz. It i ...

'' - ''Aria'' × ''Chamaemespilus'' hybrids * ''

Scandosorbus ''Scandosorbus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae. It includes two species of trees native to northern Europe. *'' Scandosorbus intermedia'' – Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Baltic states, Poland, and Germany *'' ...

'' (syn. ''Borkhausenia'') - ''Aria'' × ''Sorbus'' × ''Torminalis'' hybrids * ''

Normeyera ''Normeyera'' is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae. It includes nine species native to west-central Europe, ranging from France through Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia to Poland. They are distinguished fr ...

'' - ''Aria'' × ''Chamaemespilus'' × ''Sorbus'' hybrids

References

{{Reflist Maleae Plant common names