1. [Sorbus americana] Marsh.
Leaves 6′—8′ long, with 13—17 lanceolate acute taper-pointed leaflets unequally cuneate or rounded and entire at base, sharply serrate above with acute often glandular teeth, sessile or short-stalked, or the terminal leaflet on a stalk sometimes ½′ long, when they unfold slightly pubescent below, at maturity membranaceous, glabrous, dark yellow-green, on the upper surface, and paler or glaucescent and rarely pubescent on the lower surface, 2′—4½′ long, ¼′—1′ wide, with a prominent midrib and thin veins; turning bright clear yellow before falling in the autumn; petioles grooved, dark green or red, 2′—3′ in length, the rachis often furnished with tufts of dark hairs at the base of the petiolules; stipules broad, nearly triangular, variously toothed, caducous. Flowers appearing after the leaves are fully grown, ⅛′ in diameter, on short stout pedicels, in flat cymes 3′—4′ across, with acute minute caducous bracts and bractlets; calyx broadly obconic and puberulous, with short, nearly triangular lobes tipped with minute glands and about half as long as the nearly orbicular creamy white petals. Fruit ¼′ in diameter, subglobose or slightly pyriform, bright orange-red, with thin flesh; seeds pale chestnut color, rounded at apex, acute at base, about ⅛′ long.
A tree, 20°—30° high, with a trunk rarely more than a foot in diameter, spreading slender branches forming a narrow round-topped head, and stout branchlets pubescent at first, soon glabrous, becoming in their first winter brown tinged with red, and marked by the large leaf-scars and by oblong pale remote lenticels, and darker in their second year, the thin papery outer layer of bark then easily separable from the bright green fragrant inner layers; more often a tall or sometimes a low shrub, with numerous stems. Winter-buds acute, ¼′—¾′ long, with dark vinous red acuminate scales rounded on the back, more or less pilose, covered with a gummy exudation, the inner scales hoary-tomentose in the bud. Bark ⅛′ thick, with a smooth light gray surface irregularly broken by small appressed plate-like scales. Wood close-grained, light, soft and weak, pale brown, with lighter colored sapwood of 15—20 layers of annual growth. The astringent fruit is employed domestically in infusions and decoctions, and in homœopathic remedies.
Distribution. Borders of swamps and rocky hillsides; Newfoundland to Manitoba and southward through the maritime provinces of Canada, Quebec and Ontario, the elevated portions of the northeastern United States and the region of the Great Lakes to Minnesota, and on the Appalachian Mountains from western Pennsylvania and West Virginia to North Carolina and Tennessee; in North Carolina ascending to altitudes of nearly 6000°; probably of its largest size on the northern shores of Lakes Huron and Superior; in the United States, except in New England, more often a shrub than a tree; on the Appalachian Mountains usually low, with narrower leaflets and smaller fruit than northward.
Often cultivated in Canada and the northeastern States for the beauty of its fruit and the brilliancy of its autumn foliage. Of its forms the most distinct is
Sorbus americana var. decora Sarg.
Pyrus sambucifolia A. Gray, not Cham. and Schlecht.
Pyrus americana var. decora Sarg.
Sorbus decora Schn.
Sorbus scopulina Britt., in part, not Greene.
Pyrus sitchensis Rob. and Fern., not Piper.
Leaves 4′—6′ long, with 7—13 oblong-oval to ovate-lanceolate leaflets blunt and rounded, abruptly short-pointed or acuminate at apex, pubescent below as they unfold, at maturity glabrous, dark bluish green on the upper surface and pale on the lower surface; petioles stout, usually red 1½′—2′ in length. Flowers ¼′ in diameter, in rather narrower clusters, appearing eight to ten days later than those of the type. Fruit subglobose, bright orange-red, often ½′ in diameter.