[4][5][6] It is a medium-sized deciduous tree that grows to between ten and twenty metres tall, with a trunk up to sixty centimetres in diameter.

The fruit is a globular, dull brownish-red, pome of ten to twelve millimetres diameter, dotted with large pale lenticels, ripening in late autumn.

[4] It was at one time thought to be a variety of Sorbus intermedia (Swedish whitebeam), and it was treated as such by some authors, such as A. P. de Candolle and J. C. Loudon, during the nineteenth century.

Meanwhile, the horticulturalist, George Loddiges, whom Loudon held in high regard, labelled his arboretum trees at Abney Park Cemetery in 1840, as Sorbus latifolia, the currently-accepted binomial.

Reflecting the considerable difference in opinion over the past two centuries as to its origins and identity, many synonyms have been used for the tree, including Crataegus latifolia Lam.