Viburnum henryi Hemsl.

Foliage on Viburnum henryi from a Chinese introduction at the Morris Arboretum, Pennsylvania (20 August 2012); leathery leaves with lamina oblong, shallowly dentate at margin. Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Minutely dotted lamina lower surface on Viburnum henryi, with tiny domatia in the vein axils and a few scattered stellate hairs (Morris Arboretum, Pennsylvania – 20 August 2012). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Initial pubescence on Viburnum henryi (Morris Arboretum, Pennsylvania – 20 August 2012). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Leathery dark green lamina upper surface with raised midvein on Viburnum henryi (Morris Arboretum, Pennsylvania – 20 August 2012). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

V erubescens Wall.

This variable species is of wide distribution, from Ceylon and peninsular India to the Himalaya from Kumaon eastward and the hills of Assam; also of northern Burma and China. It is a shrub or small tree with deciduous or sub-evergreen foliage. Leaves elliptic, elliptic-ovate or oblong, acuminate, to about 4 in. long, downy or glabrous beneath, serrate, veins in five to seven pairs, prominent beneath; petioles reddish, about 1 in. long. Flowers white flushed with pink, borne around midsummer in lax, pendent panicles up to 3 or 4 in. long. Corolla with a slender tube about {3/8} in. long. Anthers almost sessile. Fruits black.The cultivated plants probably derive mostly from the seeds collected by Wilson in 1910 in W. Szechwan. This is a hardy form with longer panicles than normal and was referred by Rehder to his var. gracilipes. It was probably reintroduced by Forrest from Yunnan and certainly more recently by Ludlow, Sherriff and Hicks from Bhutan.V. erubescens has in common with V. henryi its usually long panicles, but differs among other characters in the long tubes of the corollas. It is really quite near to V. grandiflorum and its allies, but the flowers are borne after the leaves.

Viburnum erubescens 'Milke Danda' raised from HvdL 4122, an introduction from Nepalese by Harry van de Laar at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, UK (31 July 2012). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Foliage and leaf variation on Viburnum erubescens 'Milke Danda', with the lamina elliptic-oblong and about 6 pronounced secondary veins per side (Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, UK (31 July 2012). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Lamina pubescence on Viburnum erubescens 'Milke Danda' (Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, UK (31 July 2012). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Viburnum erubescens var. gracilipes flowering at Branklyn Garden, Perth, UK. 18 May 2017. Image Tom Christian.

Viburnum erubescens var. gracilipes at Branklyn Garden, Perth, UK. 18 May 2017. Image Tom Christian.

V × hillieri Stearn

A seedling of V. henryi, which must have been pollinated by a plant of V. erubescens growing nearby. It was raised by Messrs Hillier and described in 1956. The leaves are broader than in V. henryi and the habit more lax. The flowers have a longer tube than in V. henryi, but shorter than in V. erubescens, and are also intermediate in the length of the stamens, which as in V. henryi have distinct filaments, though shorter (in V. erubescens the anthers are almost sessile). See further in Journ. R.H.S., Vol. 81 (1956), pp. 538–40, with figs., and Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 680. The original clone of V. × hillieri has been named ‘Winton’. It received an Award of Merit in 1956.

The influence of V. erubescens is obvious in the broadly shaped leaves of Viburnum × hillieri 'Winton', from a plant at Arboretum Hof ter Saksen, Belgium (22 November 2006). Image © Jan De Langhe.

Viburnum × hillieri 'Winton' foliage with elongate leaves resembling V. henryi from the same plant at Arboretum Hof ter Saksen, Belgium (22 November 2006). Image © Jan De Langhe.

A selection representing the variation in leaf-shape of Viburnum × hillieri 'Winton' (Arboretum Hof ter Saksen, Belgium – 22 November 2006). Image © Jan De Langhe.