Sorbus torminalis

While working in the Orchard garden raking up hay I noticed a tree that I have known as the wild service tree.

In the words of head gardener Fergus Garrett “the orchard garden is our principal area of meadow stretching almost the whole south side of the garden. Studded with apples, pears, plums, hawthorns and crabs, the meadow stretches into the landscape marrying us to the surrounding countryside. The long grass contains communities of crocuses, daffodils, four types of terrestrial orchid, and Adder’s Tongue ferns.”

Wild service tree Sorbus torminalis fruit.

That evening I did some research: Wild service tree Sorbus torminalis. The species is a rare tree to Britain in the wild and a species indicator of ancient woodlands. The local Kent Sussex name is the chequer tree, possibly due to the nature of how the bark peels off in rectangular strips. The gritty fruit of the service tree was used and sold in the South East of England as the ‘chequers berry’. It has been eaten as a cure for colic and dysentery.