Kingdom Plantae Family Rosaceae Subgenus Sorbus Rank Species | Order Rosales Genus Sorbus Scientific name Sorbus hupehensis | |
 | ||
Similar Sorbus cashmiriana, Sorbus vilmorinii, Sorbus sargentiana, Sorbus scalaris, Sorbus glabrescens | ||
Sorbus hupehensis pink pagoda chinese rowan
Sorbus hupehensis (Hupeh rowan or Hubei rowan; Chinese: 湖北花楸; pinyin: hubei huaqiu; literally: "Hubei rowan") is a species of rowan native to central and western China (between Qinghai and Gansu in the west, Yunnan in the south, Jiangxi in the southeast, and Shandong in the east).
Contents
It is a small deciduous tree growing to 5–10 m tall, with grey-brown to purplish-brown bark. The branches and shoots are slender. The leaves are green above, paler beneath, 10–15 cm long, pinnate with 7-17 narrow oval leaflets 3–5 cm long and 1–1.8 cm broad, with an acute apex, and serrated margins. They change to orange or red in autumn. The flowers are 5–7 mm diameter, with five white petals and 20 yellowish-white stamens; they are produced in corymbs 6–10 cm diameter in late spring to early summer. The fruit is a pome 5–8 mm diameter, bright pink with persistent sepals, maturing in late autumn.
There are two varieties:
Cultivation and uses
It is grown as an ornamental tree, valued for its white fruit contrasting with the orange autumn colour.
In cultivation, it has often been confused with the related Sorbus glabrescens (white-fruited rowan) and Sorbus oligodonta (kite-leaf rowan) from southwestern China. The former differs in being a larger tree (to 15 m) with stouter shoots and larger leaves, the latter in having pale pink fruit; both are tetraploid apomictic species which breed true. The cultivar 'Pink Pagoda', often cited as belonging to S. hupehensis, is of S. oligodonta.