Vosges whitebeam

Sorbus mougeotii is a small to medium deciduous tree in the Rosaceae family, typically reaching 5 to 15 metres in height with a rounded to oval crown and grey, smooth bark that becomes scaly with age. The simple alternate leaves are elliptic to obovate, 6 to 10 centimetres long, with shallowly lobed and toothed margins; the upper surface is dark green while the underside bears a dense, persistent white to greyish tomentum. Corymbs of small white five-petalled flowers appear in late spring, followed by globose pomes about 10 to 14 millimetres in diameter that ripen to bright red in late summer and autumn. The species is native to subalpine and montane habitats of the Alps, Vosges, Jura, Pyrenees and Carpathians, where it grows on rocky slopes, cliff edges and open woodland margins on calcareous and siliceous substrates. It is considered an apomictic microspecies within the Sorbus aria aggregate.