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Aria torminalis
Aria torminalis is a medium-sized deciduous tree in the rose family, native to Europe, NW Africa and W Asia, that grows best in deep fertile soils and needs full light. It is a light-demanding, relatively rare woodland tree in Britain, usually found in ancient woods and hedgerows.
Aria torminalis is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It is a tree commonly known as wild service tree, chequers, and checker tree, which is native to Europe, northwestern Africa, and western Asia.
The species was formerly included within the genus Sorbus as the section Torminaria, but the simple-leafed species traditionally classified in Sorbus are now considered to form a separate monophyletic group.
It is native to Great Britain (England and Wales) western, central and eastern Europe to Denmark, Poland, and Ukraine, southern Europe, Algeria and Morocco in northwest Africa, Asia Minor and Syria, the Caucasus, and Alborz mountains of Iran.
The wild service tree is one of the most valuable hardwoods in Europe. The wood is fine-grained, very dense and has good bending strength. It was used in the past to make screws for winepresses, billiard cue sticks, musical instruments and turnery. Today, it is usually only used for decorative veneers.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aria torminalis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
