Whitebeam

The whitebeams are members of the family Rosaceae, tribe Malinae, comprising a number of deciduous simple or lobe-leaved species formerly lumped together within Sorbus s.l.

[1] The surface of the leaf is an unremarkable mid-green, but the underside is almost white (hence the name) transforming the appearance of the tree in strong winds, as noted by the poet Meredith: "flashing as in gusts the sudden-lighted whitebeam".

Whitebeams are sometimes used as larval food plants by species of Lepidoptera, including the short-cloaked moth.

Rather, they are representatives of several genera of the Malinae subtribe, all of which were traditionally treated within a broadly circumscribed genus Sorbus s.l.

Now, Sorbus is more often defined in a narrow sense to include only the rowans or mountain ashes, with all the other former members being elevated into genera in their own right.