Whitebeams, Rowans and Service Trees of Britain and Ireland – 2nd edition

This new edition of Whitebeams, Rowans and Service Trees of Britain and Ireland – (BSBI handbook number 14), will be widely welcomed, the original monograph having been out of print for several years.

Furthermore, the content has been updated and incorporates the results of recent work by several contributors. The format of the first edition (2010) has been retained, the book being an A4 hardback, but now 282 pages long, and with extensive use of colour photographs and illustrations. There are full accounts of 68 taxa (16 being new to this edition), as well as keys and information on Sorbus history, biology, ecology, cytology, status, conservation and more.

As in the previous edition, the monograph is based on morphological and molecular taxonomic studies coupled with extensive field work.

Tim Rich, the lead author, has expressed elsewhere that “Sorbus is one of the few examples of a detailed study in Britain and Ireland where we have worked out how (most of) the species have evolved showing how modern taxonomy needs to combine morphology, cytology and DNA.”

However, despite several attempts made in recent years to split the genus Sorbus into sub species, there is no universal consensus on a single taxonomic framework. In the light of this, the authors have continued for practical purposes to follow the most recent British and Irish treatments (Rich et al., 2010; Stace, 2019), treating Sorbus sensu lato as polyphyletic.

This well researched and produced book will be of interest to botanists, conservationists, foresters, arboriculturists and anyone interested in trees.