Sorbus thibetica mitchellii

Planted: 1997

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This tree is at the west end of the Grass Path.

Distribution:	Clone of rare Himalayan / western Chinese Whitebeam (Yunnan)
Planting Date:	December 1997, purchased from Blakedown Nurseries, Kidderminster, Worcestershire.
Growth Habit:	Medium to large tree with broad rounded head
Bark:	Purple grey; shallow scaly ridges develop (horizontal lines and lenticels). New shots remain woolly white for most of the year.
Leaf:	Large, long, wide and rounded, 20 cm x 17 cm. Dark green above but white fluffily tomentose beneath. Stalk/midrib 3 mm thick. Minor veins make a lattice between the rather distant main veins.
Flowers:	In clusters, 8 cm to 10 cm wide. Loose, woolly, flowers of 5 white petals, bowl-shaped around pink-tipped stamens.
Fruit:	Apple shaped, russet-rosy brown when ripe, about 25 mm, lenticellate and with 2-3 seeds.
Potential tree size:	17 m+
Plant Hunter:	William John Mitchell, curator at Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire.
Introduction Date:	Original Westonbirt 17 m specimen, planted in 1938, was raised from seed which may have been collected in Yunnan since it closely resembles plants collected there by Forrest and others.
Comments:	In winter, still white-backed fallen leaves litter the ground round the tree disconcertingly like discarded picnic plates.