Sorbus sitchensis

Sorbus sitchensis, also known as western mountain ash[2] and Sitka mountain-ash, is a small shrub of northwestern North America.

Sitka mountain-ash
Sorbus sitchensis flower cymes
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
(unranked):
Angiosperms
(unranked):
Eudicots
(unranked):
Rosids
Order:
Rosales
Family:
Rosaceae
Genus:
Sorbus
Subgenus:
Sorbus
Section:
Tianshanicae[1]
Species:
S. sitchensis
Binomial name
Sorbus sitchensis
Range of Sorbus sitchensis

Description

A multistemmed shrub, it is endemic to northwestern North America, from the Pacific coast of Alaska, to the mountains of Washington, Oregon and northern California and eastward to parts of Idaho and western Alberta and Montana. It is widespread in British Columbia.[3]

The otherwise similar Sorbus scopulina has yellow-green sharp-pointed leaflets that are sharply serrated over most of their length.

Winter buds
Not sticky with rusty hairs.
Leaves
Alternate, compound, six to ten inches long, Leaflets seven to ten, blue-green, lanceolate or long oval, with rounded tip, toothed usually from the middle to the end. In autumn they turn yellow, orange and red. Stipules leaf-like, caducous.
Flowers
After the leaves are fully grown, June through September.[4] White, small, 80 or fewer, borne in flat compound cymes three or four inches across.
Fruit
Berry-like pome, globular, one-quarter of an inch across, bright pinkish[1] red, borne in cymous clusters. They are enjoyed by the Richardson's grouse.[5]
Sorbus sitchensis fall foliage and fruit

Uses

While not choice eating, the fruits are consumed by some birds in winter.[6]

References
  1. McAllister, H.A. 2005. The genus Sorbus: Mountain Ash and other Rowans . Kew Publishing.
  2. "Sorbus sitchensis". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  3. Pojar, Jim; Andy MacKinnon (1994). Plants of the Pacific Northwest. Lone Pine Publishing. p. 71. ISBN 1-55105-042-0.
  4. Sullivan, Steven. K. (2013). "Sorbus sitchensis". Wildflower Search. Retrieved 2013-03-17.
  5. Peattie, Donald Culross (1953). A Natural History of Western Trees. New York: Bonanza Books. p. 510.
  6. Fagan, Damian (2019). Wildflowers of Oregon: A Field Guide to Over 400 Wildflowers, Trees, and Shrubs of the Coast, Cascades, and High Desert. Guilford, CT: FalconGuides. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-4930-3633-2. OCLC 1073035766.


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