Griffitharia vestita
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Griffitharia vestita' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Synonyms
- Aria cuspidata (Spach) M.Roem.
- Aria vestita (Wall. ex G.Don) M.Roem.
- Crataegus cuspidata Spach
- Crataegus vestita (Wall. ex G.Don) Chalon
- Micromeles vestita (Wall. ex G.Don) Mezhenskyj
- Pyrus crenata Lindl.
- Pyrus saturnus M.F.Fay & Christenh.
- Pyrus vestita Wall. ex G.Don
- Pyrus vestita var. khasiana Hook.f.
- Sorbus crenata K.Koch
- Sorbus cuspidata (Spach) Hedl.
- Sorbus nepalensis Dippel
- Sorbus nepalensis Hedl.
- Sorbus vestita (Wall. ex G.Don) Lodd.
- Sorbus vestita var. khasiana (Hook.f.) Karthik. & V.S.Kumar
Infraspecifics
Editorial Note
The text below is that of Bean (Bean 1981) who discussed this taxon under the name Sorbus cuspidata. We have created this hybrid article – Bean’s text under the correct modern name, with appropriate synonymy – whilst we await sponsorship to enable a full revision of this genus to be written. We are re-organising the Sorbus sensu lato articles in this way to enable a new revision of Sorbus sensu stricto to commence in 2023, and to bring the nomenclature of this complex group of plants up to date in line with modern treatments.
Bean discussed several closely related taxa within his account of S. cuspidata (Griffitharia vestita); for clarity and ease of reference we have placed the relevant passages into their own articles, thus:
Sorbus hedlundii – see Griffitharia hedlundii
Sorbus lanata – see Griffitharia lanata
The popular garden tree known to Bean, and still known to many as Sorbus ‘Wilfred Fox’, presents a problem. Our rearrangement of the Sorbus sensu lato articles follows Rushforth (2018) who’s proposals have been adopted by major collections in our area, e.g. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and internationally significant resources such as Plants of the World Online. ‘Wilfred Fox’ is widely considered to represent a hybrid between S. aria (now Aria edulis) and S. vestita (now Griffitharia vestita) and no new genus has been published to accommodate this cross of gardens. For now, we will continue to discuss ‘Sorbus ’ ‘Wilfred Fox’ beneath its G. vestita parent.
TC, August 2023.
A deciduous tree, of large size in the wild, but rarely seen more than 35 ft in cultivation. The habit is rather gaunt; branches few, thick, covered when young with a white wool, which afterwards falls away, leaving the shoots a smooth purplish brown; winter-buds stout, usually obtuse, almost glabrous. Leaves varying in shape even on the same spur, oblong-ovate or oblong-elliptic to broadly so, or broad-elliptic, obtuse to acute or shortly acuminate at the apex, rounded to cuneate at the base, sometimes decurrent at the base on to the petiole, 5 to 7 (sometimes to 9 in. long) by 21⁄2 to 5 in. wide, the margins irregularly and shortly toothed, sometimes doubly so or slightly lobulate, upper surface at first coated with a white cobweb-like down, but soon becoming glabrous, lower surface covered with a persistent close felt, which is at first white or yellowish white, becoming grey later; nerves more or less parallel, in usually no more than twelve pairs; petiole 1⁄2 to 1 in. long. Flowers white, 5⁄8 in. to almost 1 in. across, borne in substantial corymbs 2 to 3 in. across; stalks and receptacle very woolly. Petals woolly within. Styles four to five, sometimes three, free or almost so. Fruits globose to obovoid or oblate, about 5⁄8 in. wide (sometimes larger), russet or dull yellow flushed with red, specked with round lenticels, ripening in early winter; sepals dry, erect or spreading, inserted round a fairly wide cavity filled by the protuberant top of the ovary. Bot. Mag., t. 8259.
Native of the Himalaya from Garhwal eastward, and of north Burma; introduced in 1820, it is the most striking in its foliage of all the whitebeam group, but no large specimens have been recorded – at least none that belong unequivocally to this species. Although hardy, it will sometimes grow well for some years and without apparent reason, even in the middle of the summer, will droop and die.
S. cuspidata is variable in its foliage. An interesting form in the Hillier Arboretum makes a large shrub and has rather narrow, acuminate leaves of thinnish texture, bright green above, and unusually large fruits. It was raised from seeds received from the Indian seedsman Ghose of Darjeeling.
From the Supplement (Vol. V)
It is pointed out by David Long, in a paper published in the course of 1987 in Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh that the correct name for S. cuspidata (Spach) Hedlund is S. vestita (G. Don) Lodd. (Pyrus vestita G. Don). The publication of the herbarium name Pyrus vestita has been wrongly attributed to J. D. Hooker (1878). It was in fact first validated by George Don in 1832, two years before the publication of Spach’s name Crataegus cuspidata. In the 19th century most botanists included Sorbus in Pyrus, but the nurseryman Loddiges listed the species as Sorbus vestita in his 1836 catalogue. (cf. Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit., Vol. II, p. 912 (1838).
Old specimens of this species are very rare in gardens, the only two recorded being: Burford House, Surrey, 75 × 6 ft (1984) and Westonbirt, Gloucestershire, Circular Ride, 56 × 43⁄4 ft (1980).
The Borde Hill tree mentioned on page 419 measures 55 × 81⁄4 ft (1980).
Sorbus 'Wilfred Fox'
Editorial Note
A presumed hybrid between Sorbus aria (now Aria edulis) and S. vestita (now Griffitharia vestita); to date, no new genus has been published to accommodate this widely grown horticultural selection. Until this matter is resolved we retain Bean’s text under the familiar name ‘Sorbus ‘Wilfred Fox” in an article subordinate to G. vestita. See also the editorial note for G. vestita. TC, August 2023.
A tree to about 40 ft high, narrowly fastigiate when young, widening with age. Leaves on mature trees mostly elliptic, obtuse, up to about 5 in. long and 23⁄4 in. wide, larger and broader on young trees, dark green and glossy above at maturity, undersurface with a persistent intensely white felt; petiole slender, to about 11⁄2 in. long. Fruits roundish, lenticellate, about 1⁄2 in. wide, light russet-yellow flushed with red, ripe in early October.
This whitebeam, named by Harold Hillier in honour of Dr Wilfrid Fox, founder of the Winkworth Arboretum, was previously cultivated as “S. nepalensis”. This is a horticultural synonym of S. cuspidata, but ‘Wilfrid Fox’ differs from that species in its thinner longer-stalked leaves and its early-ripening fruits. It is most probably, as Mr Hillier believes, a hybrid of garden origin between S. cuspidata and S. aria. A tree in the Copenhagen Botanic Garden was judged by Hedlund, the monographer of Sorbus, to be a hybrid of this parentage.
The parentage S. cuspidata × S. aria was suggested by A. B. Jackson for a tree at Borde Hill in Sussex which came from Veitch in 1907 as Pyrus vestita, i.e., S. cuspidata. The leaves are thinner than in that species, predominantly roundish, up to 43⁄4 in. long, tomentose beneath, distinctly and sharply lobulate in the upper part. Flowers almost 1 in. wide, in trusses 3 in. wide. Styles two or three, free. Fruits similar to those of S. cuspidata. Another possibility is that the second parent is not S. aria but S. lanata (see below), which would explain the sharp lobules, though the petioles are longer than in either species. Twenty-five years after planting this tree was 47 × 31⁄4 ft and is now 58 × 8 ft (1975).
From the Supplement (Vol. V)
S. ‘Wilfrid Fox’. – Two trees agreeing with this probable hybrid between S. cuspidata and S. aria are: Tortworth, Glos., 46 × 31⁄4 ft (1980) and Innes House, Moray, 38 × 33⁄4 ft (1980).