Swedish whitebeam

Photo: Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 4 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Possibly of hybrid origin, and apomictic like several whitebeams here — seeds are clones of the parent rather than the product of sexual reproduction. Tolerant of maritime exposure and pollution, which along with dense foliage makes it a common street and coastal tree in its native region. ⚠ Not just astringent: raw fruit in this group contains parasorbic acid, which causes vomiting, stomach cramps and diarrhoea if you eat any quantity of it. Cooking, freezing, drying or a hard frost converts it to harmless sorbic acid — which is exactly why every traditional recipe cooks it and why the fruit is picked after the first frosts.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Sept–Oct

Mature size

To 12 m (40 ft), medium growth rate

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

5.5–7.5 (mildly acid to mildly alkaline)

Environment

Temperate, coastal

Native range

Southern Sweden, easternmost Denmark (Bornholm), south-west Finland, Estonia, Latvia and northern Poland — a triple hybrid between rowan, wild service tree and whitebeam that breeds true, and the oxel of Swedish woodland. Long planted well beyond that as an urban and amenity tree, and naturalised across north-west Europe.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

4–6 yrs

Growth speed

Medium

Spacing

500 cm (197 in) apart — about 25 m² (269 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Simple and undivided, unlike a rowan — broadly oval, 7–12 cm, shallowly lobed toward the base and coarsely toothed, dark green above and thickly grey-felted beneath.

Root system

Fibrous and moderately deep, spreading wider than the crown, with a tendency to sucker in some species. Tolerant of poor and thin soils but not of compaction or drought once established.

Fruit description

Oval, about 1.3 cm, orange-red to red-brown

Propagation

Seed, sown fresh in a cold frame, or given 2 weeks warm followed by 14–16 weeks cold stratification if stored.

Pollination

Insect-pollinated, but apomictic — sets seed asexually, so seedlings are clones of the parent tree.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.