Sorbus aucuparia L.

Tree up to 8–(12) m high, usually with an erect trunk and spreading branches; young shoots pilose, sometimes densely so, but soon becoming glabrate. Buds large; outer scales glabrous, purplish, inner scales densely covered with white hairs towards apex. Lvs imparipinnate with up to 8 pairs of leaflets; petiole 20–35–(45) mm long, green or brown to purplish, pilose, but hairs deciduous, sometimes with stalked glands; leaflets (excluding smaller ones near base) narrowly oblong or oblong-elliptic, sometimes lanceolate-elliptic, (20)–30–50–(60) × 8–20–(25) mm, obtuse to acute, ± sessile, deep green and glabrous or finely hairy above, paler and finely to densely pilose below, serrate along whole length or sometimes in upper ⅔ only; leaflets of juvenile plants and suckering shoots narrowly elliptic to elliptic-ovate, deeply and jaggedly toothed; stipules ± deciduous, small, acuminate. Infl. drooping, up to c. 120 mm across; pedicels and branchlets white-villous, becoming glabrate by fruiting. Sepal lobes broadly triangular, 0.6–1.3 mm long, obtuse, white-villous, at least at base, sometimes glabrous in upper part; margin with several short glandular teeth. Petals 3–4.5 mm diam., ± orbicular with abbreviated claw, white. Fr. depressed-globose, sometimes ± oblong-obovoid, 5–10 mm diam., deep orange to scarlet, sometimes crimson, glossy.

[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]

Flowering: Oct.–Nov.; Fruiting: Jan.–Apr.