Clethra tomentosa Lam.

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Clethra tomentosa' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/clethra/clethra-tomentosa/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Genus

Synonyms

  • C. alnifolia var. pubescens Ait.

Glossary

glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
style
Generally an elongated structure arising from the ovary bearing the stigma at its tip.
variety
(var.) Taxonomic rank (varietas) grouping variants of a species with relatively minor differentiation in a few characters but occurring as recognisable populations. Often loosely used for rare minor variants more usefully ranked as forms.

References

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Clethra tomentosa' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/clethra/clethra-tomentosa/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

A deciduous shrub up to 6 or 8 ft high, branches erect; young shoots very downy. Leaves obovate 112 to 4 in. long, 34 to 2 in. wide, tapering to a very short stalk at the base, toothed on the terminal half, pointed; upper side with scattered short hairs, lower side felted with a thick, pale wool; veins in seven to ten pairs. Flowers fragrant, white, nearly 12 in. across, produced during September in erect, woolly racemes up to 6 in. long, either terminal or from the uppermost leaf-axils. Sepals woolly, ovate-oblong, 316 in. long; stamens glabrous; style downy; flower-stalk woolly, 18 in. long. Bot. Mag., t. 3743.

Native of the south-east United States; introduced in 1731. Closely akin to C. alnifolia, and sometimes regarded as a variety of it, it is distinguished by flowering a month later and by its greyish aspect due to the woolly covering of its various parts. Its flowers, too, are purer white, larger and more ornamental, and the style is downy. Its distribution in a wild state does not extend so far north as that of C. alnifolia, and it is not quite so hardy. At Kew, however, it does not suffer from cold.