Viburnum lentago L.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Viburnum lentago' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/viburnum/viburnum-lentago/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Common Names

  • Sheepberry

Glossary

apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
bloom
Bluish or greyish waxy substance on leaves or fruits.
cyme
Branched determinate inflorescence with a flower at the end of each branch. cymose In the form of a cyme.
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
perfect
(botanical) All parts present and functional. Usually referring to both androecium and gynoecium of a flower.
section
(sect.) Subdivision of a genus.

References

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Viburnum lentago' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/viburnum/viburnum-lentago/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

A robust deciduous shrub or small tree up to 20 or 30 ft high; young wood with a slight reddish scurf; winter buds grey. Leaves ovate to obovate, wedge-shaped or rounded at the base, the apex as a rule long and taper-pointed, finely, sharply and regularly toothed; dark, shining green above, smooth on both sides except for a short, scurfy down on the midrib and veins, 2 to 4 in. long, half as wide; stalks mostly winged, 12 to 1 in. long. Flowers creamy white, 14 in. across, agreeably fragrant, all perfect, produced in May and June in a terminal stalkless cyme, 3 to 412 in. across. Fruits oval, blue-black, 12 to 58 in. long, covered with bloom.

Native of eastern N. America from Canada to Georgia, west to Missouri; introduced in 1761. Although this species does not bear fruit freely in this country, it is well worth growing for its flowers and autumn colour, and as a small, handsome tree. It has been confused with V. prunifolium and V. rufidulum, but differs in the leaves being long and taper-pointed, with broadly winged stalks. It is the type of the small section Lentago (see p. 000).