Sorbus astateria (Cardot) Hand.-Mazz.

Shrubs or small trees, to 8 m tall. Branchlets grayish brown, terete, ± rusty brown tomentose, later becoming glabrous, minutely lenticellate; buds narrowly ovoid, apex acute; scales several, brownish, glabrous or sparsely rust-brown pubescent apically. Leaves simple; petiole 5–7(–10) mm, tomentose; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate, 4–7(–9) × 2–4 cm, lateral veins 6–8 pairs, curved and anastomosing toward leaf margin, both surfaces densely rusty tomentose when young, glabrescent, abaxially tomentose only along veins when mature, base cuneate to rounded, margin minutely serrate apically, apex short to long acuminate. Inflorescences usually paniculate, 2–7 cm in diam., many flowered; rachis and pedicels rusty tomentose. Pedicel 4–7 mm. Flowers ca. 1 cm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, short, abaxially rusty tomentose. Sepals reflexed after anthesis, triangular, apex acute. Petals white, obovate or suborbicular, 4–5 × 2.5–3 mm, adaxially puberulent, base clawed, apex obtuse. Stamens ca. 20, outer stamens nearly as long as petals, inner ones shorter than petals. Styles 3 or 4, glabrous, connate at base. Fruit ovoid, 5–10 mm in diam., 3- or 4-loculed, usually without lenticels, with an annular scar. Fl. Mar–May, fr. Oct.

SE Xizang, NW Yunnan.

Mountain slopes, stream sides, mixed forests, forest margins; 1500--2700 m.

Pyrus astateria Cardot, Notul. Syst. (Paris) 3: 348. 1918; Aria astateria (Cardot) H. Ohashi & H. Iketani.