tree ID please

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tree ID please

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gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8615
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Sat Sep 05, 15 7:48 am Post subject: tree ID please
I've done a blogpost, including a request for tree ID....apologies for not putting the picture straight on here,but it is 3Mb... https://gzandco.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/more-gardening.html Edible? Or just leave it for the birds....

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Sat Sep 05, 15 8:10 am Post subject:

Looks like Whitebeam (Sorbus aria):

Fruit - raw or cooked and used in preserves etc. The fruit is usually bletted if it is going to be eaten raw[2, 3, 5, 105, 115, 183]. This involves storing the fruit in a cool dry place until it is almost but not quite going rotten. At this stage the fruit has a delicious taste, somewhat like a luscious tropical fruit[K]. Fruit from some trees has a pleasant mild flavour and a mealy texture, we like eating small quantities of it. The fruit can also be dried and ground into a powder and mixed with cereals such as wheat[2, 46, 66]. The fruit is about 10 - 12mm across[200].

This is from here.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8615
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Sat Sep 05, 15 9:42 am Post subject:
Thankyou

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8615
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Sat Sep 05, 15 7:29 pm Post subject:
looking closer, the leaves are not atall serrated. It does look like some sort of sorbus,but the leaves look like a prunus!

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15600

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 15 5:55 am Post subject:

Could it be Swedish whitebeam? It is often grown as a street tree as it is fairly small and compact. If it is a whitebeam the underside of the leaves should be white, which is hard to tell from the picture. Otherwise it could be some sort of crab apple, as some of the ornamentals have very odd fruit.

Were the flowers spread our as individual ones, or in flat plates of flower? The former would suggest crab apple, the latter whitebeam.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8615
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 15 7:35 am Post subject:
just looked at swedish whitebeam...the leaves on that are indented, almost like hawthorn. I'm thinking more prunus than sorbus now, but the fruits still look like rowanberries so far

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45432
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 15 5:16 pm Post subject:
I think it's some kind of sorbus, not a prunus. Where's mochyn?

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42207
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 15 5:18 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Where's mochyn?

In a tent somewhere dressed up as Medieval-Biggles Mum?

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45516
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 15 7:36 pm Post subject:

re the tree it does seem more likely to be sorbus than prunus from the description so far

there are rather a lot of them and they also cross breed to give hybrid ones.

perhaps the name is less important than does it taste ok,some of the sorbus var have very nice berries for jelly but there are a variety of sources that recon there are toxicity issues with some types and either raw or over ripe berries can be BAD.

gz

Joined: 23 Jan 2009
Posts: 8615
Location: Ayrshire, Scotland

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 15 8:58 pm Post subject:
as far as I can gather it is the seeds that are the toxic problem (cyanide compounds, as with apple pips) Will report back on taste, possibly combined with the local wild apples....

Falstaff

Joined: 27 May 2009
Posts: 1014

Posted: Sun Sep 06, 15 9:22 pm Post subject:

gz wrote:

as far as I can gather it is the seeds that are the toxic problem (cyanide compounds, as with apple pips)

Will report back on taste, possibly combined with the local wild apples....

Plum seeds, almonds etc all have those "cyanide compounds" - anything which tastes of almonds and is natural will.

However the concentration is so very low that for humans they are effectively non-poisonous unless consumed in huge amounts.

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