Sorbus domestica of "serve", from Old English "syrfe", borrowed from the Latin name "sorbus"; it is unrelated to the verb "serve". Other English names include sorb, sorb tree, and whitty pear—"whitty" because the leaves are similar to rowan (i.e. pinnate), and "pear" due to the nature of the fruit. Sorbus domestica Sorbus domestica, with the common name service tree or sorb tree (because of its fruit), is a species of "Sorbus" native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa (Atlas Mountains), and southwest Asia (east to the Caucasus). It may be called true service tree, to distinguish it from wild service
Fraxinus excelsior narrow crown. The bark is smooth and pale grey on young trees, becoming thick and vertically fissured on old trees. The shoots are stout, greenish-grey, with jet black buds (which distinguish it from most other ash species, which have grey or brown buds). The leaves are opposite, long, pinnately compound, with 7–13 leaflets with coarsely serrated margins, elliptic to narrowly elliptic, long and broad and sessile on the leaf rachis. There are no stipules. These features distinguish ash from mountain ash ("Sorbus aucuparia") in which the leaves are alternate with paired stipules. The leaves are often among the last to