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Sorbus aria, the common whitebeam (also treated as Aria edulis), is a small to medium deciduous tree of the family Rosaceae growing 8 to 15 m tall with a neat rounded crown. The simple, oval, sharply and doubly toothed leaves are dark green above and conspicuously white-felted beneath, so the tree shimmers silvery-white when the wind turns the foliage. Flat-topped corymbs of small, white, five-petalled flowers open in late spring, followed in autumn by clusters of rounded scarlet to orange-red berries speckled with lenticels. Native to Europe, the whitebeam grows characteristically on dry, calcareous soils over chalk and limestone, on cliffs, scrub, rocky slopes and open woodland, and is much planted as an ornamental and street tree. The mealy fruits become edible after bletting.