[1] It includes some of the deciduous species commonly known as whitebeams, and is native to Europe, the north African mountains and western Asia.

Via hybridisation with related genera, it is a main contributor to the genesis of a complex of apomicts of intergeneric hybrid origin, which are also commonly referred to as whitebeams.

They bear corymbs of white flowers in spring, and the small, colourful pome fruits ripen in late summer.

Traditionally, they and their parent genera were commonly treated as subgenera of a large genus Sorbus s.l., however, this system was found to be polyphyletic.

The genus Aria is distributed across much of Europe, western Asia and the Atlas Mountains in north Africa.