Deutzia scabra Thunb.

Deutzia scabra

A deciduous shrub up to 10 ft high; branches erect, covered with brown peeling bark; young shoots glabrous or slightly rough. Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, the larger ones of the barren shoots rounded or heart-shaped at the base, slender-pointed, up to 4 in. long by nearly 2 in. wide; the smaller ones and those of the flowering twigs tapered at the base, all stellately scurfy on both sides, the marginal teeth are small and fine, standing upwards rather than outwards from the margin. Panicles erect, cylindrical, 3 to 6 in. long, terminating short leafy lateral twigs. Flowers pure white or tinged with pink outside, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. long and wide; petals nearly erect, oblong, pointed; style about as long as the petals, calyx-lobes deciduous, covered with starlike scales; the lobes triangular; wings of stamens with two distinct shoulders below the anthers. Flowers in late June. Bot. Mag., t. 3838.

Native of Japan and China; introduced in 1822. This is undoubtedly the best and most reliable of deutzias in this country. It usually escapes damage by late frosts, and produces its showy erect panicles in great profusion. Strong branches will, in their second year, become transformed into pyramidal masses of bloom 2 ft long. The double-flowered and rosy forms are excellent shrubs.

Deutzia sieboldiana

A deciduous shrub of bushy, rather lax habit 4 to 6 ft high; young shoots covered with scurfy stellate down. Leaves ovate or oval, 11⁄2 to 3 in. long on the barren shoots, 5⁄8 to 11⁄4 in. wide, rounded, heart-shaped, or tapered at the base, pointed, sharply and irregularly toothed, dull green, stellately hairy on both surfaces, the hairs with three to five rays; veins prominent beneath; stalk 1⁄4 in. or less long. Leaves of the flowering twigs smaller and comparatively broader; often scarcely stalked. Flowers pure white, 1⁄2 in. in diameter, produced during early June in corymbose-paniculate clusters 1 to 21⁄2 in. long, terminating short lateral twigs which carry one or two pairs of leaves. Petals ovate; style rather longer than the stamens, whose wings (at least of the longer ones) taper towards the anthers; calyx felted, the lobes broadly triangular, persistent. Flower-stalks rough with bristles and stellate down.

Native of Japan; and an elegant though not showy shrub. It is of dwarfer habit than D. scabra, to which it is allied, and differs botanically in having the leaves on the flowering wood almost sessile; and in the longer, tapered anthers. The flowers are mignonette-scented and the stamens orange-coloured.