Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Deutzia discolor' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Bean treated this species under the synonym Deutzia reflexa Duthie; the transfer to D. discolor by Zaikonnikova (1975) was noted by Clarke in the Supplement (1988).
A shrub 3 ft or more high; young shoots glabrous. Leaves oval-lanceolate, tapered at the base, slenderly pointed, 2 to 4 in. long, 1⁄2 to 1 in. wide, upper surface beset with rather scattered starry scales, the lower one grey, densely clothed with much smaller scales, and furnished with simple hairs along the chief veins. Flowers pure white, produced in May and early June in dense, rounded, corymbose panicles about 2 in. across. Petals 1⁄3 in. long, reflexed at the margins; wings of the stamens distinctly bilobed at the top; calyx-lobes narrow-oblong, persistent; calyx and flower-stalks scaly.
Native of Central China; discovered and introduced by Wilson in 1901. It is very pretty about the beginning of June, the previous year’s stems being then loaded with the numerous flower-clusters. A form with shorter flower-stalks and more crowded inflorescences of smaller flowers was formerly recognised as D. vilmorinae, now reduced to synonymy.