Osteomeles subrotunda K. Koch

A dwarf, slow-growing, evergreen shrub, the tortuous branches covered with silky down when young. Leaves pinnate, 3⁄4 to 11⁄2 in. long, composed of four and a half to eight and a half pairs of leaflets, the main-stalk hairy and grooved above. Leaflets obovate or oblong, 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. long, stalkless, the apex broad and rounded; lower surface silky-hairy, the upper one less hairy and shining. Flowers white, 1⁄2 in. across, borne in axillary leafy corymbs.

Native of the Bonin Islands and the Ryukyus; first introduced to the Jardin des Plantes at Paris from Japan, thence to Kew in 1894. Botanically this species is, no doubt, closely allied to O. anthyllidifolia (see preceding species), but its stunted branches, slow growth, and obovate smaller leaflets amply distinguish it. Increased by cuttings. Not very hardy in the open.

Although the true O. subrotunda is still in cultivation, it is possible that some of the plants grown under this name are really O. schweriniae var. microphylla. That, at any rate, is the identity of a plant received by Kew in the 1930s under the name O. subrotunda.