a genus of shrubs or trees of the family Rosaceae having feathery leaves

The genus Sorbus is a genus of about 100-200 species of trees and shrubs in the subfamily Maloideae of the Rose family Rosaceae. The exact number of species is disputed considerably between different authorities, due to the number of apomictic microspecies, treated by some as distinct species, by others grouped in a much smaller number of variable species, and also depending on the circumscription of the genus. Recent treatments (Robertson et al. 1991, McAllister 2005) treat Sorbus in a narrower sense to include only the pinnate-leaved species of subgenus Sorbus, raising several of the other subgenera to generic rank.