For information about how you could sponsor this page, see How You Can Help
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Jamesia americana' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
A deciduous shrub 4 to 7 ft high, of bushy, rounded habit, and usually more in diameter than it is high; branches stout, stiff, very pithy, covered with a bright brown, downy bark, which afterwards peels off in papery flakes. Leaves opposite, on the barren shoots ovate, 1 to 3 in. long, 3⁄4 to 2 in. wide, coarsely and regularly toothed, with scattered, flattened hairs above, downy, almost felted beneath; on the flowering twigs the leaves are much smaller, and often of more oval outline; stalk downy, 1⁄4 to 3⁄4 in. long. Flowers slightly fragrant, pure white, 1⁄2 in. across, produced during May in erect, terminal pyramidal panicles 1 to 21⁄2 in. long and broad. Petals five, oblong. Calyx woolly, with five ovate acute lobes. Stamens ten. Styles three to five, united only at the base. Fruit a capsule. Bot. Mag., t. 6142.
Native of western North America; introduced to Kew in 1862. This interesting and pretty shrub can be propagated by cuttings and, given a sunny position, and an open, not too rich soil, thrives excellently. A plant with pink flowers, found by Purpus in Nevada, has been named f. rosea (Rehd.) Rehd.