Need help with tree ID

[Steve Bullman]

not quite sure what this tree is, anyone help?

[TimR]

true service tree ( rowan family)

 

sorbus domestica

 

found a link to a picture here true service tree

 

( used my good old faithful collins gem book of trees to find it though )

[nuttyarb]

Nice find Steve, a lovely tree. Don't see them very often.

[Steve Bullman]

ok so to confirm, is that 100%?

[nuttyarb]

yep, i'm 100% with Tim

[Dagmar]

True Service Tree: I've got a little more info if you like. It was not uncommon for this tree to be grown in association with orchards as it had a use in cider making. Most of these trees have gone the way of our orchards, but their decline - in the commercial sense - started before the actual orchards. It has its origins in sothern and eastern Europe and probably came here with the Romans.

 

True Service Fruit is a very old fruit which is almost forgotten now. It would be a very problematic fruit to flog at your local grocery store because it isn't any good to eat until it has started to rot, (like Medlars).

 

When the fruit is ripe and at its peak of perfection, it isn't any good to eat -- it's far, far too tart: its high tannin levels would cause pucker lines on your face that would last the rest of your life. The fruit needs to be either "bletted" (let rot a bit) to make it sweet, or used in cider, where the tannins can be taken advantage.

 

The fruit is about 1 inch wide (2.5 cm), with about 2 to 5 seeds in each fruit. The shape can be apple-shaped or pear-shaped, with skin that is yellowish or greenish with splodges of pink or red, and some russetting.

 

A True Service Fruit tree, which will grow "true to seed", can live for several hundred years and grow 30 to 60 feet tall (10 to 20 metres). It produces white blossoms and then the small fruit growing in clusters.

 

Bletting is a term that is used to refer to fruit when it has gone past ripe, and has started to decay. There are some fruits which are either considered at their best after some bletting, such as Twentieth Century Asian Pears, or which can only be eaten after bletting, such as Medlars, Persimmons and True Service Fruit.

 

The French use the same word: "le fruit doit être cueilli blet : c'est- à- dire après le passage des premières gelées d'automne." (The fruit must be harvested "bletted"; which is to say, after the first autumn frosts".)The word appears to be used only in reference to fruit.

[Steve Bullman]

thanks for the info dagmar

[Lee Winger]

well you learn something new every day thanks Dagmar!, by the way ''Dates'' need to rot [bletted] before their palatable as well..

[Tommy Hutchinson]

Some sources say its an endangered species, is it?

[John Hancock]

Hi Steve,

We have one here in the whole of Worcester so guess it must make it pretty rare!