Sorbus vilmorinii (mountain slopes, roadsides, mixed forests along river banks, grasslands, bamboo thickets). "Sorbus vilmorinii" was described based on a specimen in cultivation that was an apomictic microspecies. However, almost indistinguishable specimens are diploid and frequent in the wild. Also hybrids are common in the wild. In cultivation, this plant provides a long season of interest as an elegant, compact tree which can be grown in smaller gardens. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Like all rowans the fruit can be cooked and used to make bitter jellies or marmalades. Sorbus vilmorinii Sorbus vilmorinii, the Vilmorin's rowan
Sorbus mougeotii which differs only in slightly broader leaves. It is also closely related to "Sorbus intermedia" (Swedish whitebeam), which differs in having the leaves grey-white below and more deeply lobed, with the lobes spreading rather than forward-pointing, the fruit oval and less bright red, and in forming a stouter tree with a single trunk and more horizontal branching. All are tetraploid apomictic species which breed true without pollination, and ultimately of hybrid origin between "Sorbus aria" and "Sorbus aucuparia". It is widely grown as an ornamental tree in northern Europe, though usually unrecognised, misidentified as "Sorbus intermedia". Although described in 1858,