Rowan some countries, but "Sorbus domestica", for example, has largely vanished from Britain, where it was traditionally appreciated. Natural hybrids, often including "Sorbus aucuparia" and the whitebeam, "Sorbus aria", give rise to many endemic variants in the UK. The traditional names of the rowan are those applied to the species "Sorbus aucuparia", "Sorbus torminalis" (wild service-tree), and "Sorbus domestica" (true service-tree). The Latin name "sorbus" was borrowed into Old English as "syrfe". The name "service-tree" for "Sorbus domestica" is derived from that name by folk etymology. The Latin name "sorbus" is from a root for "red, reddish-brown" (PIE "*sor-/*ser-"); English "sorb"
Sorbus aucuparia but wide and the plant often grows multiple trunks. A trunk is slender and cylindrical and reaches up to 40 cm in diameter, and the branches stick out and are slanted upwards. The bark of a young "S. aucuparia" is yellowish gray and gleaming and becomes gray-black with lengthwise cracks in advanced age; it descales in small flakes. Lenticels in the bark are elongated and colored a bright ocher. The plant does not often grow older than 80 years and is one of the shortest-lived trees in temperate climate. Wood of "S. aucuparia" has a wide reddish white sapwood and