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Sorbus domestica
Also called Service Tree, Sorb Tree, Whitty Pear, Servicetree, True Service Tree
Cormus domestica is a deciduous tree in the rose family, native to much of Europe, northern Anatolia and North Africa, grown for its astringent fruit that becomes sweet when bletted. Its fruit makes jams, juice and cider-like drinks, and it is rare in the wild in many countries.
Cormus domestica, commonly known as service tree or sorb tree, is a species of tree in the rose family (Rosaceae). Its continuous range includes much of Europe as well as northern Anatolia, but isolated populations have been found in the Atlas Mountains of Northwest Africa, and east into the Caucasus and northwestern Iran. It may be called the true service tree, to distinguish it from the wild service tree (Aria torminalis, syn. Sorbus torminalis). It is commonly classified as the only species in the monotypic genus Cormus, although the synonym Sorbus domestica continues to be used.
The fruit is a component of a cider-like drink which is still made in parts of Europe. Picked straight off the tree, it is highly astringent and gritty; however, when left to blet (overripen) it sweetens and becomes pleasant to eat. In the Moravian Slovakia region of the Czech Republic, there is a community-run museum with an educational trail and a festival for this tree, with products like jam, juice and brandy made from its fruit.
In ancient Greece, the fruit was cut in half and pickled, which in Plato's Symposium (190d7-8) has Aristophanes use as a metaphor for the cutting in half of the original spherical humans by Zeus.
Cormus domestica is generally rare, listed as an endangered species in Switzerland and Austria, and uncommon in Spain. In the UK, one very old tree that existed in the Wyre Forest before being destroyed by fire in 1862 used to be considered native, but it is now generally considered to be more likely of cultivated origin, probably from a mediaeval monastery orchard planting. More recently, a small population of genuinely wild specimens was found growing as stunted shrubs on cliffs in south Wales (Glamorgan) and nearby southwest England (Gloucestershire). It is a very rare species in Britain, occurring at only a handful of sites. Its largest English population is within the Horseshoe Bend Site of Special Scientific Interest at Shirehampton, near Bristol.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cormus domestica 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.
