Viburnum prunifolium


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Plant Characteristics
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Scientific Names

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Viburnum prunifolium (Blackhaw, also spelled Black haw, Blackhaw Viburnum, or Stag Bush), is a species of Viburnum native to southeastern North America, from Connecticut west to eastern Kansas, and south to Alabama and Texas.[1]

It is a deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 2–9 m tall with a short crooked trunk and stout spreading branches; in the northern parts of its range, it is a shrub, becoming a small tree in the southern parts of its range. The bark is reddish-brown, very rough on old stems. The branchlets are red at first, then green, finally dark brown tinged with red. The winter buds are coated with rusty tomentum. The flower buds ovate, 1 cm long, much larger than the axillary buds. The leaves are simple, up to 9 cm long and 6 cm broad, oval, ovate or orbicular, wedge-shaped or rounded at base, serrate, acute, with serrated edges with a grooved and slightly winged red petiole 1.5 cm long; they turn red in fall. The leaves are superficially similar to some species of Prunus (thus "prunifolium"); they come out of the bud involute, shining, green, tinged with red, sometimes smooth, or clothed with rusty tomentum; when full grown dark green and smooth above, pale, smooth or tomentose beneath.[2][3][4][5]

The flowers are creamy white, 9 mm diameter; the calyx is urn-shaped, five-toothed, persistent; the corolla is five-lobed, with rounded lobes, imbricate in bud; the five stamens alternate with the corolla lobes, the filaments slender, the anthers pale yellow, oblong, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; the ovary is inferior, one-celled, with a thick, pale green style and a flat stigma and a single ovule. The flowers are borne in flat-topped cymes 10 cm in diameter in mid to late spring. The fruit is a drupe 1 cm long, dark blue-black with glaucous bloom, hangs until winter, becomes edible after being frosted, then eaten by birds; the stone is flat and even, broadly oval. Wherever it lives, black haw prefers sunny woodland with well-drained soil and adequate water.[2][3][4][5]


Read about Viburnum prunifolium in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture 

Viburnum prunifolium, Linn. (V. pyrifolium, Poir.). Black Haw. Stag-bush. Shrub or small tree, attaining 15 ft., with spreading, rather stout branches: winter buds short-pointed, glabrous or reddish, pubescent: lvs. broadly oval to ovate, acute, or obtuse, glabrous or nearly so, 1-3 in. long; petioles often with narrow margin, glabrous: fls. pure white: cymes sessile, 2-4 in. broad: fr. oval to subglobose, bluish black and glaucous, little over 1/3 in. long. April-June. Conn. to Fla., west to Mich. and Texas. A.F. 12:1100. Gng. 5:310. M.D.G. 1901:628. F.E. 17:701.


The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.


Cultivation

Propagation

Pests and diseases

Species

It has hybridized with Viburnum lentago in cultivation, to give the garden hybrid Viburnum × jackii.

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References

  1. Germplasm Resources Information Network: Viburnum prunifolium
  2. 2.0 2.1 Missouriplants: Viburnum prunifolium
  3. 3.0 3.1 Andrew Chevallier (1996). The Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants: A practical reference guide to more than 550 key medicinal plants and their uses. Reader's Digest. pp. 279. ISBN 0-88850-546-9. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 Keeler, H. L. (1900). Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. New York: Charles Scriber's Sons. pp. 184. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 Michael Castleman (1991). The Healing Herbs. Rodale Press. pp. 79-81. ISBN 0-87858-934-6. 

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