X SORBARONIA FALLAX (ROSACEAE): A NEW RECORD OF AN INTERGENERIC HYBRID IN CONNECTICUT

摘要

The genus Sorbus, which includes the mountain ashes and rowans, is known to hybridize with at least four other closely related genera in the Rosaceae: Amelanchier, Aronia, Crataegus, and Pyrus (Dirr 1998; USDA, NRCS 2008). These genera all belong to subtribe Pyrinae, long known as subfamily Maloideae (Potter et al. 2007) within which intergeneric hybridization is rather common (Robertson et al. 1991). These intergeneric hybrids are known only in cultivation in North America, except X Amelasorbus jackii {Amelanchier alnifolia X Sorbus scopulina), found in Oregon and Idaho, and various X Sorbaronia (Sorbus sp. X Aronia sp.) on the east coast (Fernald 1950; USDA, NRCS 2008). In eastern North America all three native or naturalized mountain ash specieshybridize with Aronia (USDA, NRCS 2008). These intergeneric hybrids are infrequent in the wild, and not included in Gleason and Cronquist (1991), though X Sorbaronia hybrids are recorded from Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia (USDA, NRCS 2008), andthey are also known from Maine (Haines and Vining 1998; Hyland and Steinmetz 1944). There are no previous records for X Sorbaronia in Connecticut (Dowhan 1979; USDA, NRCS 2008).