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     Mountain-ash, Sorbus americana Marsh., is not native to Alabama, but it is included here because it is the only species even found in adjacent states, Georgia and Tennessee, as well as having some related trivia that is interesting.  It is a shrub or tree with alternate pinnately compound leaves and relatively smooth gray bark.  There are several other species mostly in Europe where vernacular names include whitebeam, service tree, and rowan as any well read fan of LOTR would recognize.  Some of these are more notable for being edible.

     There are several hybrids, including both intrageneric hybrids and intergeneric hybrids with the genus Aronia Medik. that was once considered synonymous with both Sorbus L. and Pyrus L., but is now in the genus Photinia Lindl.  The intergeneric hybrids are now classified in the genus ×Sorbaronia C.K. Schneid., and are reported to reproduce true to type through a type of parthenogenesis, called apomixis in botany, that in effect produces clones in the form of viable seed.

     Mountain-ash is available in the nursery trade and is reported as hardy for this area (zone 7) where it would make an interesting specimen tree, although I would prefer progeny from a Southern Appalachian population as close as possible to Alabama so that it would be better adapted to more heat and humidity. 

     I finally got to see some, although dormant and without either flowers or the more notable the persistent red berries, actually pomes, while backpacking over Roan Mountain on the Appalachian Trail in preparation to go to Philmont Scout Ranch in June of 2009, where interestingly both places still had snow on the ground.  The definitive key I used to make the identification was a rachis and knowing that nothing else with a rachis matched any of the other keys.