21. Headrow Bastard Service Tree
Not far from Leeds’ landmark Town Hall, a tough little tree stands proudly on The Headrow
Charmingly named bastard service trees have been staples of urban planting for decades. They are neither large nor particularly long-lived, but they are tough and attractive with creamy blossom in spring, and orange berries in the autumn. This solitary tree on Leeds' Headrow shows how a tree can become a landmark and a natural beacon in a streetscape otherwise dominated by stone, glass and steel.
Species details
Bastard Service Tree
Sorbus x thuringiaca
Where to find it
The Headrow, Leeds LS1 8EQ
///really.smooth.raft | 53.799766, -1.5470350
Bastard service tree notes
That memorable name denotes this is a hybrid tree. It is a cross between the closely related, but visually dissimilar rowan and whitebeam, two trees in the Sorbus genus of ornately flowering trees. On close inspection, the leaves of a bastard service tree hint at its parentage, in shape they are midway between the pinnate leaves of a rowan and simple whitebeam leaves. The service tree bit is just there to confuse, reminding Sorbus aficionados of the other relatively common native member of that genus, the wild service tree with distinctive leaves quite different from either whitebeam or rowan…
