Cotoneaster melanocarpus Lodd.

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var. laxiflorus (Lindl.) Schneid.

A deciduous shrub, 4 to 8 ft high, of bushy habit; young wood downy. Leaves broadly oval or ovate, blunt or rounded at the apex, up to 1{1/2} or 2 in. long, dark green and often hairy above when young, always greyish woolly beneath. Flowers pinkish white, borne in gracefully pendulous cymose panicles 1 to 2 in. long, some of the larger panicles carrying twenty to forty flowers; calyx glabrous. Fruit {1/4} in. across, globose, black.Native of Siberia; introduced to England from Vienna in 1826. Among the black-fruited cotoneasters this is distinguished by its comparatively large panicles of blossom, which give it quite a Pretty aspect in May, and render it the most attractive of this group.