Checker (chequer) Tree Mountain-Ash – Sorbus torminalis

Also commonly called the wild service tree, this plant figures heavily in British history as a symbol for the public house.

The Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain ascribes the following characteristics to this enigmatic tree: “Native to the UK. Tree has a bushy habit, white flowers in summer, brown fruit in autumn. A spreading deciduous tree to 25 m (75 feet) with broad, pinnately lobed leaves that turn reddish-brown in autumn, and cream flowers in early summer followed by small brown fruits. Time to ultimate height: 20-25 years.” They suggest as common names: wild service tree (preferred), checker (or chequer) tree,  griping tree, or sorb. No opinions are offered as to the origin of these names or uses for the fruit.

Cultivated checker tree, grown from seed at northern Illinois, is 27 years old

The Woodland Trust (‘The UK’s leading woodland conservation charity’) is more ambitious and hyperbolic, with offerings such as, “..famous for its autumn fruits, often made into sweets for children and alcoholic drinks for adults,” and “gorgeous red leaves in autumn.” Common name offerings include wild service tree, chequers tree, maple tree, chokers, and maple cherry. They ascribe the tree the following characteristics: Average height: 10-25 m. (whither average?). Leaflets are described as “looking a little like a maple having around five lobes.” The good people at TWT then recite a mishmash of “admittedly confused” debates over whether the fruits were called chequers and lent their name to the pubs (Chequers Inns) or vice versa, or whether the fruits were made into alcoholic drinks and served therein.

However, they are sure of: The fruits can be used to flavor whisky as well as other alcoholic beverages, the wood is not often used despite its “lovely fine grain and silvery sheen and similarity to sycamore,” and the fruit were much more popular in the past;  “Households in southern England would pick the fruits and string them together over the hearth to ripen” for the children to munch upon. Heady brew indeed.

Cometh then Habitat Aid, “a one-stop resource for creating sustainable landscapes and delivering biodiversity” (!) which tells us the wild service tree, (or chequer tree) is now one of the “rarest native trees, being concentrated in the southern weald in association with ancient woodland and clay soils.” Apparently, the wild service tree’s crop of fruit (“chequers”) – although almost entirely consumed by birds and insects – was “a Neolithic staple” and “inevitably folk made wine out of it, which was served at Chequers Inns – possibly also at the Prime Minister’s Chequers country residence!” [3]. A nice touch, that, tying in the PM. They do offer the species for sale along with provenance certificates.

Wikipedia offers a smorgasbord of interesting tidbits, among them:

Although “chequers” taste similar to dates, they are usually too astringent to eat unless “over-ripe and bletted.”
Chequers “traditionally are known” as a remedy for colic. The Latin species epithet torminalis means “good for colic.”
Before the introduction of hops, the fruit was used to flavor beer, which may or may not be related to the ancient symbol of a pub being a chequer-board although the pub name itself it has been suggested was originally brought by the Romans (citation needed).
Alternatively, “chequers” may have been derived from the pattern of the fruit, though some suggest from the pattern  of the bark on old trees.
This species is “native to Europe from England and Wales east to Denmark and Poland, south to northwest Africa, and southeast to southwest Asia from Asia Minor to the Caucasus and Alborz mountains.”