Viburnum alnifolium - Hobblebush (Now V. Iantanoides but I consider the name repulsive)

(vT-ber’num al-ni-fö’Ii-um)

(vT-ber’num lan-tä-noy’dëz)

LEAVES: Opposite, simple, broad-ovate to suborbicular, 4 to 8” long, nearly as wide, short acuminate, cordate, irregularly denticulate, stellate-pubescent above at first, late glabrous and dark green, more densely pubescent beneath, chiefly on the veins; petioles 1 to 2 1/2” long, scurfy.

890 Viburnum

Vibumurn alnifolium, Hobblebush, is a straggling shrub with pendulous outer branches; often develops a procumbent habit and roots develop where the branches touch the ground; reaches 9 to 12’ in height. The summer foliage is medium to dark green and develops reddish to deep claret in fall although I saw plants in Maine in rather deep shade that were beautiful rose-gold, green-gold to pinkish purple. The flowers are borne in flat-topped, 3 to 5” diameter cymes-the outer flowers of which are sterile, white, about 1” diameter and produced in mid-May. The fruit is a red, finally purple-black drupe about 1/3” long which matures in

September. This species is maximally adapted to shady, moist areas. Native to New Brunswick and Michigan to North Carolina in the mountains. Introduced 1820. Zone 3 to 5(6). This is a shrub that one has to adapt to for it lacks the symmetry of many viburnums. Probably best adapted to a naturalized situation.