The Service Tree The Tree for a New NO Europe PRINT NO The Service Tree PRINT The Tree for a New Europe Mgr. et Mgr. Vít Hrdoušek Mgr. Zdeněk Špíšek prof. Dr. Ing. Boris Krška Ing. Jana Šedivá, Ph.D. Ing. Ladislav Bakay, Ph.D. NO PRINT Please pay 10 euro for use this PDF print. This money will be used for nice paper printing of this book. The Service Tree – the Tree for a New Europe Mgr. et Mgr. Vít Hrdoušek; Mgr. Zdeněk Špíšek; prof. Dr. Ing. Boris Krška; Ing. Jana Šedivá, Ph.D.; Ing. Ladislav Bakay, Ph.D. Published in 2014 by Petr Brázda – vydavatelství and MAS Strážnicko as part of the project “Rural Traditions in the Landscape II” ISBN: 978-80-87387-28-3 Index I. Introductory chapters 9 II. Service tree in history and art; Vít Hrdoušek, Zdeněk Špíšek, Ladislav Bakay 13 • II. 1. Service tree in historical sources • II. 2. Service tree in art • II. 3. Service tree in popular rendition • II. 4. Service tree and local names • II. 5. The history of the name “service tree” • II. 6. Service tree and the beginnings of pomology III. Service tree – description of the species; Vít Hrdoušek, Zdeněk Špíšek, Ladislav Bakay 39 NO• III. 1. Basic data on the species • III. 2. Morphology of the species • III. 3. Service tree variability IV. Service tree – species system and genetics; Zdeněk Špíšek, Vít Hrdoušek 53 • IV. 1. Service tree and related species • IV. 2. Genetics of the European service tree populations V. Service tree – ecology; Vít Hrdoušek, Zdeněk Špíšek, Ladislav Bakay 61 • V. 1. Service tree habitat requirements • V. 2. Service tree requirements regarding the environment and nearby trees VI. Service tree – distribution; Vít Hrdoušek, Zdeněk Špíšek, Boris Krška, Ladislav Bakay 69 • VI. 1. Central Europe • VI. 2. Western Europe • VI. 3. Southern EuropePRINT • VI. 4. Eastern Europe • VI. 5. Africa and Asia VII. Service tree – propagation and planting; Zdeněk Špíšek, Jana Šedivá, Boris Krška, Vít Hrdoušek 101 • VII. 1. Propagation • VII. 2. Service tree planting VIII. Service tree – diseases and pests; Vít Hrdoušek, Zdeněk Špíšek, Boris Krška 127 • VIII. 1. Service tree diseases • VIII. 2. Service tree pests IX. Service tree – cultivation, tending and age determination; Vít Hrdoušek, Zdeněk Špíšek 135 • IX. 1. Cultivation and tending trees in forests • IX. 2. Cultivation and tending trees in the open landscape • IX. 3. Tending old trees • IX. 4. Service trees and their age X. Service tree – utilisation of wood, bark and buds; Vít Hrdoušek, Zdeněk Špíšek, 161 • X. 1. Wood and bark • X. 2. Buds and their utilisation XI. Service tree – use of fruits; Vít Hrdoušek, Zdeněk Špíšek, 169 • XI. 1. Composition and effects of fruits • XI. 2. Harvesting and processing sorb apples XII. Service tree – introduction to pomology; Vít Hrdoušek, Boris Krška, Zdeněk Špíšek 195 • XII. 1. Pomology of service trees in Europe • XII. 2. Pomological types and varieties of service trees found along the Moravian- Slovakian border • XII. 3. Other interesting service tree varieties XIII. Literature 227 NO PRINT The largest service tree of Bohemia and Moravia, called “Adamec’s service tree” on the Žerotín hill near Strážnice with4 the estimated age of 470 years (1, 2012). NO PRINT 5 NO Fruit trees are immensely useful – apart from bearing fruit they make the land more fertile and healthy.PRINT They give different kinds of beautiful wood... Alleys protect fields from being dried by wind... and meadows from being barren from snow cover that is good for the harvest. Planting and tending fruit trees take away the opportunities for idleness and wickedness stemming from it – drinking, lewdness, stealing... In a sense it is a great means of cultivating and improving the human spirit and heart. František Pixa, 1848 Acknowledgements: Jana Amadou, Kateřina Bačíková, Marie Benedíková, Cristina Bignami, Stanislav Boček, Romana Cahlíková, Alain Desbrosse, Damir Drvodelić, Rudolf Dundr, Heiko Fischer, Martin Hrabec, Magdalena Hrdoušková, Wedig Kausch, Miroslav Kovářík, Thomas Kirisits, Balasz Kiss, Jan Kolaja, Martin Maňák, Volodymir Mezhenskyj, Enrico Milič, Evelina Moinet, Viktoria Orsigety, Viera Paganová, Jiří Peška, Adéla Pokorná, Zdeněk Prudič, Peter Rotach, Andreas Rudow, Vojtěch Řezníček, Imre Sonnevend, Oldřich Tupý, Andrea Uherková, Radim Vašut. Foreword Just a few years ago, for me the service tree was one of the few indigenous fruit trees whose importance had been declining. With the co-author of this publication – Zdeněk Špíšek, who asked me to supervise his dissertation work dedicated to this interesting tree, I have discovered the value of this unique tree. The nutritional composition and delicate taste of sorb apples can make them an important dietary supplement. Legends about the medicinal effects of service trees in folk medicine handed down for NOcenturies have now been explained by the presence of active substances and indirectly by their utilisation in alternative medicine. The tree itself is a phenomenon. Not only does it provide highly acclaimed wood, but it is also an important landscape feature of south-eastern Moravia that constitutes a substantial part of the local landscape character. The basic aim of this book is to introduce the service tree and its significance from different perspectives. The target audience of this publication is the general public, which is why it is quite practical. Advice on planting and processing of fruit and wood guides us as the Ariadne’s thread. We read about the context of service-tree planting in history and see it as an object of scientific research, forPRINT instance in the area of genetics or biotechnology. Examples of regional oral traditions, revealing the importance of this species for our ancestors, are interesting as well. However, the main benefit is the number of practical advice on how to grow and take care of service trees, how to harvest their fruit and prepare traditional products from them. I wish this publication helped the readers to discover the importance of this valuable tree, same as the authors helped me to discover the “mysterious service-tree universe”. The book makes me want to plant yet another service tree. I believe that it makes the readers feel the same, thus helping to reintroduce service trees to south-eastern Moravia, and not only there. Dr. Radim J. Vašut Department of Botany Faculty of Science Palacký University in Olomouc Olomouc, 4 April 2014 NO A still-life in the manneristic rendering by painter Giovanna Garzoni from the year 1640, depicting probably the old service-tree variety Parrocchiane that grows in southern Italy. PRINT 8 Foreword Dear readers, old trees have been disappearing all across Europe recently, especially the fruit ones. The old is being replaced with new, modern and exciting. The importance of old species and varieties of fruit have often been forgotten, and therefore it needs to be reminded to avoid the disappearance of their unique characteristics and beauty. Old fruit trees have been neglected in NOour region and sometimes even systematically destroyed. Their fruit is considered a rather unpleasant waste. Trees in rural landscapes – often their regional varieties – are important not only for pomology, but they also play an important role as border points, anti-erosion features, landmarks in the landscape and as family trees that link the lives of individuals and families with the landscape. Old trees create also a unique habitat for many other organisms and they are valuable biological and ecological landscape elements. Nevertheless, there are still areas in our country where people have kept their natural relationshipPRINT with trees and nature. One such example is the Moravian Slovakia region near the Czech-Slovak border. Thanks to its continuous agricultural tradition, old varieties of apples, pears, plums and rarer species, such as mulberry, medlar, quince, dogwood and service tree have been preserved in local landscape. And for its uniqueness, the service tree has become a symbolic tree of the Moravian Slovakia region and is experiencing its renaissance. This book draws on the publication “Service Tree from A to Z” (Hrdoušek et al., 2003) and its aim is to acquaint the public with this unique European tree – the service tree (Sorbus domestica). The aim of this publication is to raise awareness of this nearly forgotten fruit tree and to make its landscaping, culinary, forestry and medical benefits available to the future generations of Europeans. Vít František Hrdoušek, 2014 To my father, who planted many trees. 9 About the service tree Eveline Moinet, 2009 France For centuries, the cormier tree has been a source of food, medicine and wood. The things that haven’t been forgotten have been passed down orally, but even this is being forgotten. The remaining trees constitute a valuable biological and cultural heritage. Our task now is to ensure the conservation of the service tree in our rural landscapes and to give it an honourable place in the context of NOtoday’s agriculture. Cristina Bignami, 2000, Italy Up until now, the presence of the sorbo trees at the foot of Vesuvius has been almost ignored. Neither is the service tree part of the national inventory of fruit trees genetic resources in Campania. Despite the efforts of the general public to restore the use of traditional fruit, the prospects of preserving service trees on the slopes of Vesuvius, as well as in the rest of Italy, are very small. The aging of the trees as well as the farmers who grow them is the reason why the possibility of their use is extinguishing. Another threat is the expansion of urban areas that gradually takePRINT up agricultural land in the countryside. Brütsch et Rotach, 1993, Switzerland There are many good reasons to protect “Speierling”. In addition to its value for the nature there are landscape/ecological and cultural/historical motives together with traditional economic interests that can save this tree species.