A shrub to about 10 ft high in the wild, sparsely branched; young growths woolly at first. Leaves pinnate, 11⁄4 to 27⁄8 in. long, dull green above, hairy beneath, the terminal leaflet much longer and broader than the lateral ones, being 1 to 17⁄8 in. long and up to 1 in. wide, elliptic or obovate, obtuse, entire or sometimes serrate in the upper part, lateral leaflets in one to three pairs, oblique at the base, the upper pair often partly connate with the terminal leaflet. Inflorescence few-flowered, terminal on a short leafy shoot; flowers white. Fruits globular, dark red or reddish black, 3⁄8 to in. wide, with a juicy flesh, containing a few nutlets about 1⁄8 in. long.
A hybrid between Sorbus sibirica (a close ally of S. aucuparia) and Cotoneaster melanocarpus, collected shortly before 1951 in the upper valley of the Aldan, south of Yakutsk, in E. Siberia and described in 1953; named after the forester who discovered it. This interesting hybrid was introduced to Britain in 1958 by Messrs Hillier, who received scions from Siberia through the good offices of Dr D. K. Ogrin of the Faculty of Agriculture, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.