Very dead Sorbus

Must be about 50 years old. It rather quickly went from green leaf to dead. Not Fireblight as the leaves just went dried rather than scorched. In the process of digging it out I find that the roots are rotten, but with no sign of fungus in them.
Can Sorbus drown? We have had a lot of rain.
Or is it Honey fungus, except that there are no mushrooms anywhere near the tree.
A Hydrangea close by is also very sad as is a Weigela Bristol Ruby, but a white Lilac is still looking green and healthy, as is a something or other ilicifolia.
So basically, what could kill a tree so rapidly?

 

If the roots were rotten then surely it had been on its last legs for a few years.

 

As other plants are showing signs of distress it could be drowning. Lilac are pretty tough buy hydrangeas and weigela would not like wet feet.

 

I planted 8 trees in the border which crosses my garden. After a particularly wet winter, the Sorbus vilmorinii, Prunus 'Accolade', Pawlownia tomentosa and Robinia hispida all drowned. The Cercis siliquastrum hung on for a couple of years but died last (equally wet) winter. Not many trees and shrubs can cope with 3 months of drought in summer and 4 months of saturated soil in winter.

 

I lost 2 Sorbus Discolour due to drowning! I have a small burn ( steam to those south of The Border!) running along infront of my garden. It is an overflow from a reservoir. Due to the water company being made to find an alternative water supply to the town the reservoir was decommissioned about 4 years ago As a result while the burn is still monitored it’s water level stays much higher than it used to and does not dry up in the summer. Within 2 years I lost both Sorbus trees and a Copper Beech. Luckily the shrub bed in the photo which is stuffed with Rhododendron and Azalea is higher than where the trees were and have not been affected.

 

It takes a fair bit of permanent water to kill them. Even in persistently wet areas of the lower slopes of our hills here, they manage, but that's the native ones, and the cultivated ones aren't quite so tough IMO.
If it's that age, it was possibly on it's way out anyway, and although hydrangeas and most shrubs can manage loads of water, they still need adequate drainage, so that could be the problem if it's not just down to age.

We know on this side of Scotland that there will be lots of regular and persistent rainfall, so prepping ground when planting anything is always important, but that could be very different in areas where that's not the norm, so maybe there's an underlying layer of clay or similar, so the extra rainfall has just tipped them over the edge.

 

We were worried that it might be a fungal infection. There is a long time dead sycamore about 15 feet from it (in the hedgerow so not removable). That has a bracket fungus in it, so we were a bit concerned. The Rowan may well have been dying for a while, but it did leaf and fruit well last year.
Still it does give me a quite large area to replant. Thanks folks.

 

It may not be water that is the problem.
Sadly Rowan can be killed by Fire blight..we lost 2 in our Welsh garden.

 

Perhaps replant with thing that are more resistant to honey fungus and not prone to fireblight, just to be on the safe side. I think fireblight only affects the rose family. If you want trees/shrubs I think there are lists of types that are more resistant to honey fungus somewhere online (can't remember exactly where - sorry. Maybe try RHS website). Herbaceous plants should be fine on both counts.

 

Well, the stump is now lying on the ground. Very heavy it is too. There is no sign of any fungal root thingies in the soil, so hopefully we are clear of that. The roots were pretty rotten and snapped easily so waterlogging may have been the problem.
Nice big space with light shade for lots of herbaceous stuff.

 

That's really interesting @Silver surfer - I didn't know fireblight could affect rowan. Never seen it. I've had rowans in every garden I've had, and there are loads around here - various types. My sister has several different ones, but as far as I know, she's not had a problem.

Perhaps just an impermeable lower layer then @Palustris? That's a pity anyway. I wonder if your other shrubs will go the same way? Maybe a bit of investigating needed. Hope you get it all sorted though, so that you can replant. Always an opportunity for something new.

 

Definitely not Fireblight. Having seen it before I know the signs. This Sorbus just slowly 'dried' as it would in Autumn rather than looking as if it had been set on fire. The stump is now out. The last few roots just snapped when I leant on the stump.
We have had a lot of rain since I started digging round the tree, but the hole has not filled with water as one would expect if there was an impermeable layer under the tree.
Actually looking at it, most of the roots were in the top few inches of soil, very few went downwards. The conifers we removed 5 years ago had much deeper penetrating roots than this Sorbus. Odd!

 

How odd @Palustris . Perhaps it never really grew out and down the way it should have. Sometimes there's no real rhyme or reason is there?
Hope the other shrubs don't fail though.