The Wertheimsteinpark Service Tree

Most people walk past a service tree without knowing what it is, and in Central Europe that is partly because there are so few of them. Sorbus domestica is a scarce, slow-growing relative of the rowan, and this one in the Wertheimsteinpark is 2.3 metres round at a metre above the ground, with a crown about 13 metres across. The city's tree cadastre measures it at 236 centimetres and puts its height in the 16 to 20 metre class. Vienna protected it in February 2012 as Natural Monument 829, one of four trees in this park given that status on the same day. It is the smallest of the four in girth, and the only one that is a rarity by species rather than by size: the lime beside it is the giant, the service tree is the curiosity. The fruit is the reason the species has a name in German. Speierling, the small pear-shaped fruit, is traditionally added to apple wine in parts of Germany, where its tannins are valued. In Vienna's park it stands without a label of that kind, so look for pinnate leaves like an ash and flaking, scaly bark on an old trunk, and check the fruit if you come in autumn. No planting year is recorded for it, so we do not offer an age.