Cotoneaster franchetii Bois

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Cotoneaster franchetii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cotoneaster/cotoneaster-franchetii/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

Glossary

Tibet
Traditional English name for the formerly independent state known to its people as Bod now the Tibet (Xizang) Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. The name Xizang is used in lists of Chinese provinces.
calyx
(pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
lustrous
Smooth and shiny.

References

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Cotoneaster franchetii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/cotoneaster/cotoneaster-franchetii/). Accessed 2024-03-28.

An evergreen shrub 8 to 10 ft high, with slender, gracefully arching branches, which the first year are covered with a dense, pale brown wool. Leaves oval, tapering towards both ends, from 34 to 114 in. long, about half as wide, pointed; upper surface rather hairy when young, lustrous green later, lower surface covered with a thick, whitish, afterwards pale brown felt; stalk 18 in. or less long. Flowers borne in corymbs of five to fifteen flowers terminating short, lateral, leafy twigs; petals erect, white, touched with rose on the outside; calyx felted like the under-surface of the leaves. Fruit oblong, 14 to 13 in. long; orange-scarlet; nutlets usually three. Bot. Mag., t. 8571.

Native of Tibet and W. China; first raised in France about 1895, by Maurice de Vilmorin, from seed sent by the Abbé Soulié. It is a shrub of very elegant growth, whose fruits are freely borne, but lose in brilliancy by the greyish down, more or less dense, which covers them. It was at first confused with C. pannosus but the two species belong, in fact, to different subdivisions of the genus, so the resemblance is really superficial. The distinguishing characters may be defined as follows: leaves rather longer than in pannosus, but with stalks scarcely half as long, the upper surface somewhat lustrous; flowers not so numerous in each cluster, petals erect and rose-tinted; fruits larger, longer, and not of so deep a red. It flowers in May, and the fruit is ripe in October.


C wardii W. W. Sm

A native of S.E. Tibet, found by Kingdon Ward in 1913. It is perhaps not in cultivation, the plants grown as wardii being for the most part C. franchetii var. sternianus, from which it differs in its longer flowering branchlets, thinner leaves and in certain floral characters.

var. cinerascens Rehd

Leaves larger, up to 1{1/2} in. long, covered with a loose grey felt.

var. sternianus Turrill

Synonyms
C. wardii Hort., not W. W. Sm

This variety differs from the type mainly in the shape of the fruit, which is obovoid to almost globose, not oblong. It was introduced by Farrer from Burma in 1919 and long grown in gardens as “C. franchetii” or, more commonly, as “C. wardii”. It is figured in Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 130, and discussed by the late Dr Turrill in the accompanying note. This variety is one of the finest of the taller cotoneasters, being very hardy and growing rapidly to a height of 6 ft or more. The older leaves frequently die off into bright orange shades just at the time that the fruits are in high colour. It was given the Award of Garden Merit in 1953.