Hubei Rowan

Trees to 10 m tall. Branchlets purplish brown when old, terete, glabrous or nearly so when young, sparsely lenticellate when old; buds oblong-ovoid, 6–9 mm, apex shortly acuminate or acute; scales several, brownish, glabrous or puberulous. Leaves imparipinnate, together with rachis 10–20 cm; petiole 3–4(–6) cm; stipules persistent, 5–8 mm, lobed or coarsely serrate; rachis adaxially shallowly sulcate, glabrous, somewhat winged; leaflets 5–7 pairs, at intervals of 1.2–3 cm, basal pair usually smaller than others, blades oblong or oblong-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, 3–6 × 1–1.8 cm, lateral veins 12–20 pairs, arcuate-anastomosing at margin, both surfaces glabrous, abaxially paler, glaucescent, base usually rounded, margin minutely sharply serrate, with 12–20 teeth on each margin, entire in basal 1/3, apex acute to shortly acuminate. Inflorescences loose, 5–8 × 5–10 cm, many flowered; rachis and pedicels glabrous, with small lenticels; bracts similar to stipules, but smaller. Pedicel 2–3 mm. Flower 6–8 mm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, abaxially glabrous. Sepals triangular, 1–2 mm, apex ± obtuse or acute. Petals white, ovate or oblong-ovate, 3–5 × 2.5–3.5 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Stamens 15–20, ca. 1/2 as long as petals. Styles 3 or 4, nearly as long as stamens, sparsely pubescent basally. Fruit white or yellow, ovoid, 6–8 mm in diam.; sepals persistent. Fl. May, fr. Aug–Sep. 2n = 34*.

Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong.

Broad-leaved mixed forests on sunny slopes; 1500--2000 m.

Pyrus discolor Maximowicz, Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.-Pétersbourg Divers Savans 9: 103. 1859; P. pekinensis (Koehne) Cardot; Sorbus pekinensis Koehne.

Sorbus discolor is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae, native to China. Although it is recorded in wide use as an ornamental tree in the United Kingdom and other countries, it is not; "Sorbus discolor" is a name erroneously applied to Sorbus commixta, the Japanese rowan. Sorbus commixta fruit are bright orange to red, whereas Sorbus discolor fruit are white, or possibly dull pink to yellowish-orange.