French Cormiers

Introduction

Apples, pears and… no not bananas – service trees.

These are [arguably] the three big tree species of the pome fruits (Malinae) that have been domesticated and are naturalized in Western Europe. Service tree (Cormus domestica syn. Sorbus domestica) is however the rarest of the three, by far.

Service tree has many local names, even within the same country, here’s a small subset:

• Service tree (UK)
• True Service tree (UK)
• Sorb tree (UK)
• Whitty pear (UK)
• Cormier (northern France)
• Sorbier (southern France)
• Oskeruše (Czechia) [2]
• Speierling (Austria)
• Sorbo (Italy) [3]

Personally I’ve become fond of the name ‘cormier’ (corm-yay), as not only does it match the new genus Cormus, and avoid confusion with similarly named trees such as wild service tree (Torminalis) and the modern Sorbus genus, but it sounds so delightfully French. Since this article is mostly about service trees of northern France, we’ll use the name ‘cormier’ when referring specifically to service trees in France, and ‘service tree’ otherwise.

Now you might wonder why, am I writing about French cormiers in the first place? Well I always held an interest in service trees, and in sourcing varied genetics of them. I vaguely knew France had some special genetics (something about more maliform fruits vs more pyriform in the other regions), and that the service tree was sometimes used in agroforestry there, but not much more than that.

It is thanks to the kindness of Arnould Nazarian, a cormier champion from Paris, who sent me seeds from some of the best cormiers from France. Then I studied the history of the cormier, and found it unexpectedly fascinating. I hope this article of what I learned serves to show my gratitude.

Some Botany

The service tree is distributed through central and southern Europe in particular in the Balkan peninsula, Italy and southern France, and rarely in parts of North Africa and western Asia [3].

It is a light-demanding species that as a result doesn’t establish well in shade. Although it’s cold tolerant to -25C, it requires a warm Summer to grow well and ripen the fruits. They generally prefer a drier climate with less than 800mm rainfall annually (…), and are also fairly drought tolerant. The service tree is deciduous, with beautiful Autumn foliage turning a bright pinkish red colour.

Service tree fruits vary in size, ranging from 1cm diameter to 4.5cm diameter. They range in colour from greenish to yellowish, to reddish to brownish. Shapes vary widely too, with apple and pear shapred fruit and everything in between. The fruits must be bletted like medlars to be eaten (otherwise they are far too astringent), and then they become sweet and tasty, somewhere between a pear and a medlar in flavour. Service trees have thousands of years history of providing food, producing cider and spirits, medicinal uses, ornamental uses, and as timber. The fruits are greatly appreciated by animals as well. They are long-lived trees, often up to 200 years old, rarely up to 400 years old [2].

In terms of soil conditions, service trees prefer well drained soils due to their deep root system. In New Zealand I have seen a service tree growing on a clay slope in the Wellington area and in Wakefield on standard soils, so as long as the soil does drain somehow, it should be fine.

A Brief History of the Cormier

The service tree is apparently native to the southern Europe temperate forests, but its original range has been obscured by nearly two thousand years of deliberate introductions into western and central Europe by humans and the resulting natural dispersal. It was likely already native to southern France thousands of years ago, as southern France (and the Iberian peninsula below it) was a potential refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum.

It seems likely it was harvested from the wild by the native Gaul peoples where they encountered service tree [6]. There possibly could have been very limited import of dried fruits from the trade with Ancient Mediterranean during the Iron Age and before, but there’s currently not strong evidence that service tree was widely cultivated at this time. Pollen records indicate that the Gauls were not huge cultivators of Rosaceae plants [11].

The Roman conquest of Gaul (modern France) in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC is commonly cited as the time when service tree was introduced further into France. In the centuries after this time there was a large increase in the number of tree crops grown all over Europe. At some point within this period, service tree likely began to be cultivated on a limited scale in France. It likely began to be used in a fermented drinks (a sort of ale) called ‘curmi’ in Gallic, which eventually evolved over the centuries into a cider-like drink called cormé (corm-ay). Cormé is supposedly similar in taste to perry (pear cider), not that I’ve actually tasted cormé to be able to confirm that.

By the 5th century, the Romans had withdrawn from Gaul. There isn’t much written from this period, but it’s likely that cormiers were planted in the orchards of monasteries, abbeys and farmsteads. Cormiers provided food (with fruit either consumed fresh once bletted, or dried for use later), for fermented drinks (early types of ale and eventually cormé) and as a medicine. The medicinal uses of service trees have been known from antiquity, with early ancient Greek references from Dioscorides and Galen, both writing of its ability to prevent diarrhea when consumed as an astringent. When consumed overripe, it instead stimulates digestion.

In the late 8th century, Charlemagne had produced the Capitulare de villis, a text that provided guidance on managing the royal estates of the Carolingian Empire (which included modern France). This text recommended planting the cormier, along with 19 other familiar fruits/nuts such as apples, pears, plums, bitter oranges, sweet chestnuts and medlars to list a few.

By the 12th century, cormier wood began to find its first major use in France, being the favoured choice of wood for the gear teeth in the water mills used to grind grain, and as the main screw of the screw presses used for producing wine and oil, and later – cider. Cormier wood is the amongst the densest and hardest native woods in Europe, even denser than oak. Water mills (and thus cormier wood) would be of primary importance for the next eight centuries, all the way to the Industrial Revolution. It seems likely that each water mill had their own supply of cormier wood, and that it was treated as a very precious commodity to be used carefully.

By the 14th century the Little Ice Age began to take hold in Europe (lasting for about five centuries), with many short periods with bitterly cold Winters and much losses of crops and resulting famines. The area under vineyards in France likely peaked in the 14th century before declining for the next few centuries, although southern regions that could still grow grapes well, still produced wine [w].

In 1480 a great frost destroyed the vineyards in Maine, France (the modern departments of Sarthe and Mayenne). Facing a shortage of wine in the region, a renewed focus on making cider (then considered of low status) began to develop there. It was pears and cormiers that were mostly planted for cider in Maine, not apples. Similarly the vineyards in Normandy, also performing poorly, began to be converted into orchards, although it was mostly apples there.

The many place names of Sarthe department still called ‘Cormier’ today bear witness to the previous importance of the cormier from this period:

The late Middle ages were probably the golden period for cormier in France. It enjoyed dual use both as a specialist timber tree, and as a fruit tree planted commonly by peasants. Traditionally, cormiers were planted along hedges and roads, and a tree was often planted for special occasions. These young planted cormiers were tended to and cared for, as otherwise they would rarely establish. The cormiers grew large and lived so long that they were used as landmarks and as boundary markers. They fulfilled a small but important role for many who lived rurally.

But by the 19th century, the cormier was in decline. An “Agricultural Revolution” had began in tandem with the Industrial Revolution, which caused both an increased demand for high yielding crops with a fast turnaround, and lowered the importance of locally grown food (due to the increased ability to transport food over long distances with railways and canals).

Cormier was still recommended to be cultivated by the French Pomological Congress as late as 1873, but that was the last time it was recommended. Grafted varieties were still being sold by one nurseryman – André Leroy of Angers, who lists 3 grafted cormier varieties for sale in 1903. In the Economic Study of the Sarthe of 1919, the Ministry of War drew up the inventory of fruit crops in the region: cherries, plums, apricots, peaches… but the cormier, was not even mentioned.

Around this time, the mechanization of agriculture began to drastically change the rural landscape. Previously fields were smaller and cultivated by humans and animals. With machinery, much larger fields could be cultivated. This meant that many hedgerows, previously one of the main places where communal fruit trees such as cormier were planted, were ripped out to make space for larger fields.

Tragically, cormier wood still fetched very high prices all throughout the previous centuries. Many of the large trees planted centuries ago met their end at the saw to provide timber of the highest quality. The quality of its wood, once a blessing, had become a curse. By the end of the 20th century, the cormier is nearly a ghost, but still deeply respected by the few who remember the old ways.

Cormier in the 21st century

Thankfully, in the 21st century (well it seems to have started in the 1990s to be precise…) there is renewed interest in the cormier.

SEPENES (Society for the Study and Protection of the North and East Sarthe) began to inventory the remarkable trees in Sarthe department in 1992, and found an unexpectedly large number of cormiers. The mystery of why there were so many large cormiers in Sarthe led to a period of study of the cormier, interviews of people and historical research, resulting in the publication of ‘La traité du Cormier’ (The Treaty of Cormier) by Evelyne Moinet in 2009. A fascinating book, I can’t read French but thanks to automatic translation I was able to enjoy it.

Agroforestry research trials with service tree in south France have also been undertaken. Starting in 1995, service trees were planted in an alley crop system with durum wheat and peas. Service tree rows were the ‘sunny’ system (because of the light shade cast by the service tree), with hybrid walnuts and poplars, as the ‘shady’ system). The idea behind the trial was that “Trees provide a microclimate which buffers daily temperature variations and protects from extreme values of temperature, which may increase the quantity of harvest by protecting crops against drought, but may also improve the quality of harvest production by protecting crops against thermal stresses. Trees can promote nutrient cycling, increase carbon storage, and reduce nitrogen leaching in autumn-winter.“

Unfortunately these service trees had established very poorly after 20 years (possibly due to water stress), and were still under 3m tall, casting basically no shade over the much wider crop row. Two studies were undertaken from these alley crop trials – yield measurements of various durum wheat cultivars, and weed abundance and species composition. In general the wheat yields were slightly reduced in alley cropping systems vs conventional field systems; this is expected to be at least partially offset by yields of fruit and timber. The effect on weeds was minor; slightly lower total abundance and slightly higher species richness in agroforestry systems.

L’association CORMIER Sorbus domestica was formed in 2017, to take the previous work started by SEPENES into the future, by focusing on awareness, replanting and preservation (both the trees, and jams, jellies and compotes).

Skilled amateur tree sleuths from other areas of France have also located many veteran cormier trees, and are assisting in preservation as well. Some are motivated by historic trees in general, and others are motivated specifically by the cormier.

Eric Bordelet also started commercial production of cormé in 2017, after half a century of there being none [e].

I think there is much to be cautiously optimistic about for the future of the cormier.

Thoughts on A History of French Cormiers

I wasn’t planning on writing this “thoughts” section when I planned out the article. When I began this research, I never imagined that the history of the cormier (and I’ve only barely scratched the surface) went this deep. But the more I researched, the more I felt strange feelings that are hard to describe, although I’ll give it a try.

Perhaps it was because it was like peering into a parallel universe – one where apples never really took off and something else did. Maybe in that universe, the cormier was tamed first – tannins reduced, larger fruits, the tree dwarfed – it would be much like a pear of today. The fact that cormier was actually dominant in some regions at one time, but then faded to nearly nothing raises many ‘what if?’ questions.

Or perhaps it’s because so many of the traditional French tree crops naturally became traditional English tree crops… except this one. English and French people alike can join the rich tradition of eating greengages (Reine Claudes in French) for example, and of course the history of apple cultivation is deeply intertwined across both countries. Even grape cultivation has nearly two thousand years of history in England that I, as someone with English heritage, could connect with. But the service tree only barely made it to England. It never entered English culture the way it did French. Looking at the rich French history of service tree cultivation feels a bit like looking through the window, seeing the orange glow of the fire, but not feeling its warmth.

The service tree was first recorded in Wyre forest, Worcestershire in 1678. This tree is now believed to have been planted rather than truly wild [pla]. The Wyre forest service tree was considered the sole ‘wild’ true service tree in England all the way until 1983 (!), when some scraggly service trees were discovered growing on steep slopes and limestone cliffs in South Wales. A few more were soon discovered in the Wye and Severn valley, and then a single tree found in the upper Camel Estuary in Cornwall. Around 60 service trees have now been recorded in native British environments (although many of which are likely to be suckers rather than distinct individuals). Genetic variation of these trees suggests they are truly wild and not introduced. Service trees were occasionally planted and enjoyed in England in the centuries past, but very rarely and with very little cultural impression.

I hope I’ve managed to get across just some of the mystery and reveration that the cormiers of France hold for some people. With that said, it’s finally time to examine some of the genetics that Arnould kindly sent to us.

Géante de Saint-Germain (Giant of Saint-Germain)

This variety was named by Arnould Nazarian and Bernard Cormier, who found the tree in the Paris region thanks to a mention of a park with cormiers in the appendices of ‘La traité du Cormier’. The name is a nod to the German service tree variety ‘Sossenheimer Riese’ (Giant of Sossenheim, a village in Frankfurt am Main).

Géante de Saint-Germain produces very large fruits, the largest recorded is 51.8g, with the average fruit size being approximately 25g. This is near the largest recorded corm size in France, and especially impressive that this tree is in the northern part of its range.

The tree is next to another cormier with almost equally large fruits (up to 40g +/-), whose cross pollination with helps to ensure large crops on both trees.

Photos provided by Arnould Nazarian:

Toussus-le-Noble

There are two healthy cormiers growing at Toussus-le-Noble, just south of Versailles. These trees were brought to notice by Evelyne Moinet and Bernard Cormier, members of the L’association CORMIER Sorbus domestica.

The fruits are large, between 20g to 35g.

Arnould Nazarian visited the trees and writes [paraphrased]:

The weather of 2024 was very bad for cormiers in Central France, far too rainy for almost a year. Therefore most cormier trees have suffered with fungal issues on their leaves and few fruits or even no fruits at all. Despite this bad weather, these two trees are loaded with fruits, they must adapt to the climate conditions of this place.

Most interesting of all is that one of these trees has russetted fruit (‘cormes grises’ in French – grey corms). Russetted service tree fruit is a very rare trait (on an already very rare tree, “rare squared” as Arnould says) that seems to be mostly present in the French and German populations of service tree, and almost absent everywhere else.

Arnould mentioned that Vitek Hrdoušek (a renowned service tree expert from Czechia) said that he had never seen any russetted service trees with powdery mildew and that he suspects the russet trait is a genetic adaptation to a wetter climate than the Mediterranean climate of the service trees original range. This is also written in Vitek’s book ‘The Service Tree – Tree for a New Europe’ as well.

When I first read this, I almost jumped out of my chair, as adaptation to a wetter climate is exactly what I’m looking to do myself. Seeing more or less clear evidence that adaptation of service tree to a wetter climate has probably been in progress for several centuries, and that we can directly benefit from that, is extremely exciting. I believe using these genetics will save us decades of breeding time in New Zealand.

Marmoutier

Marmoutier is a town in the Alsatian foothills, in the very East of France, close to Germany. Marmoutier has a very long monastic history and is still famous for its abbey. The beginnings of the abbey were in the late 6th century, running semi-continuously until its dissolution at the end of the 18th century. The monks had planted many cormiers centuries ago, of which 35 are presently recorded in the surroundings of the town. This is the largest concentration of mature cormiers in Alsace, and probably even the whole northeast of France. Two of the trees are noticeably larger than the others, and are also probably the oldest and largest in northeast of France. There is almost no natural regeneration of these cormiers here, and so these veteran trees are all that’s left standing.

The following pictures were taken by Sisley:

Arnould visited these Marmoutier cormiers in 2015. The two largest trees were clearly showing their age, with one of the trees having a large hole, and the other a large crack. The trees were still loaded with fruit in the shape of small pears, despite the damage.

Others

Arnould also sent cormier seeds from these other sources:

Gretz-Armainvilliers: There are 9 cormiers here in a park/arboretum. Two very large and old trees produce russet fruits. Then one large old tree produces yellow fruit with a red blush. Six young to middle aged trees produce yellow fruit with a red blush. The biggest and most productive cormiers are the ones producing russet fruit. As the biggest most productive trees are the easiest tree to pick up fruits from, most of the seeds come from russet fruits.

Chèvreloup: There are two young, and two old cormiers in the Chèvreloup arboretum, near the Palace of Versailles. I’m not sure which trees the seeds came from, but probably the older trees (?)

Helary: No idea what these are 🙂

Some Genetics

Lastly, I think it’s worthwhile to take a step back from the individual trees and have a quick look at the bigger picture of service tree genetics.

The service tree is the only species in the Cormus genus, unlike the genuses for apples and pears which contain roughly between 30-50 species each. Furthermore the service tree has never been recorded forming intergeneric hybrids with other Rosaceae plants (unlike pears and hawthorns for example, which have formed many). As a result, the genetics within the service tree species are pretty much all there is to work with for improving its suitability for other climates.

The most recent genetic study of many of the European service tree genetics (but still missing key regions, such as Germany and Czechia) was published in 2022. Based on 7 nuclear DNA markers, service tree populations were able to be grouped best into roughly two groups – Eastern and Western (which includes France). This seems to imply service trees radiated out from two main refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum; one in the Iberian peninsula (and south France), and the other the Italian and Balkan peninsulas. The populations in northern Italy and north-western Switzerland seem to be where these two populations meet, as they have mixtures of both genetics. I suspect Germany would contain service trees of mixed genetics as well (as of writing I am not aware of any genetic studies that investigate this).

I believe in order to have the most success adapting service tree to New Zealand climates (and especially a West Coast climate at that), we would want to use genetics from both the Eastern and Western regions to have the widest genetic base (and thus most adaptable).

In an earlier study published in 2015, French service trees were found to be the most genetically distant, followed closely by the Austrian trees. This earlier study had a smaller sample size than the 2022 one, so it’s perhaps a weaker result.

I think this may imply that the French and Austrian service trees have had more selection, likely to help them become more suitable for these regions, as there they are outside of the original range (before major human intervention). I have also been working to source service tree genetics from other regions, and already have seedlings from the service trees at Luther Burbank’s experimental farm in California, and am working on sourcing some seeds from Czechia.

So in summary, it seems French cormiers may hold some of the most useful genetics for service tree breeding for a New Zealand climate. Thanks again to Arnould for providing these!

References

1. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sorbus_domestica_9396.jpg
2. https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/south-moravian-oskeruse
3. Hrdoušek V. (ed.), Špíšek Z., Krška B., Šedivá J., Bakay L. (2023): The Service Tree – The Tree for a New Europe. Petr Brázda – vydavatelství, 254 pp.
4. https://forest.jrc.ec.europa.eu/media/atlas/Sorbus_domestica.pdf
5. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sorbus_domestica_000_045_481_O_(cropped).jpg
6. Mele M, Črešnar M. Early Iron Age Landscapes of the Danube Region. Graz; Budapest: Archaeolingua Alapítvány; 2019.
7. https://www.studentroom.ch/en/service-tree
8. Moinet E. Le Traité du Cormier. 2nd ed. La Ferté-Bernard: Société d’ Etude et de Protection de l’ Environnement Nord et Est Sarthe; 2024, 151 pp. https://www.cormier-sorbusdomestica.com/_files/ugd/f40a02_dea56dbdac934d1990e358dcbf26efa5.pdf
9. https://ciderchat.com/podcast/219-sorbs/
10. Jan-Peter George, Heino Konrad, Eric Collin, Jean Thevenet, Dalibor Ballian, Marilena Idzojtic, Urs Kamm, Peter Zhelev, Thomas Geburek, High molecular diversity in the true service tree (Sorbus domestica) despite rareness: data from Europe with special reference to the Austrian occurrence, Annals of Botany, Volume 115, Issue 7, June 2015, Pages 1105–1115, https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcv047
11. Tickner A. Production and consumption at the hillfort site of Mont Dardon, France: An archeobotanical analysis (Doctoral dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).
12. http://www.archiveofciderpomology.co.uk/origins_of_cider.htm
13. [w] Phillips R. French wine: A history. University of California Press; 2020 Apr 7.
14. [csd] https://www.cormier-sorbusdomestica.com/l-association
15. [e] https://ericbordelet.com/corme-en.html. Archived at: https://web.archive.org/web/20250322080432/https://ericbordelet.com/corme-en.html
16. [wyre] https://www.wbrc.org.uk/worcrecd/Issue%2015/sorb_tree.htm
17. [pla] https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cormus/cormus-domestica/
18. [gla] https://www.valeofglamorgan.gov.uk/en/enjoying/Coast-and-Countryside/Habitats-and-Wildlife/True-Service-Tree.aspx
19. [stg] https://fruitiers.net.pepinature.org/fiche713c.html?id=7846
20. https://lestetardsarboricoles.fr/wordpress/2015/01/14/les-cormiers-marmoutier-bas-rhin/
21. https://www.monumentaltrees.com/fr/fra/basrhin/marmoutier/4569_verger/9312/
22. https://www.monumentaltrees.com/fr/fra/basrhin/marmoutier/4569_verger/9313/
23. Armbruster GFJ, Lucek K, Willi Y. Cryptic population structure at the northern range margin of the service tree Sorbus domestica. PeerJ. 2022 Dec 5;10:e14397. doi: 10.7717/peerj.14397. PMID: 36523464; PMCID: PMC9745788.
24. George, Jan-Peter & Woodman, Julian & Hampton, Mark & Konrad, Heino & Geburek, Thomas. (2016). True-Service Tree (Sorbus domestica, Rosaceae) in the British Isles: rare but diverse. New Journal of Botany. 6. 21-30. 10.1080/20423489.2016.1168092.
25. https://web.archive.org/web/20210331010041/http://www.le.ac.uk/hi/polyptyques/capitulare/trans.html [charlemagne translation]