Photinia glabra (Thunb.) Maxim.

A glabrous evergreen shrub up to 10 ft high. Leaves bronzy when young, becoming glossy dark green, narrowly oval, sometimes slightly obovate, 11⁄2 to 31⁄2 in. long, one-third to half as wide, pointed, tapered at the base, regularly and shallowly serrate; stalk 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long, glabrous. Flowers in loose, terminal, much-branched panicles 3 to 5 in. across, scented like hawthorn, each about 3⁄8 in. wide with five narrowly oval petals, white tinged with pink, hairy on the inside at the base, opening in June. Fruits globose, 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. wide, red, ultimately black.

Native of Japan, whence Wilson introduced it in 1914, but it may have appeared previously; it also occurs in China. It is a pleasant evergreen without any outstanding merits. The related P. serrulata is a much larger shrub or small tree, with larger, oblong or oblanceolate leaves, leaf-stalks hairy when young and longer than in P. glabra (up to 13⁄4 in. long), and glabrous petals.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

cv. ‘Rubens’. – this makes a bushy shrub. Unfortunately, it is less hardy than the clones of P. × fraseri, which have less brilliant young foliage.

† cv. ‘Variegata’. – Leaf-margins white flushed with pink. Said to be hardier than the green-leaved form.

P. × fraseri – The clone ‘Robusta’, raised in Australia, has proved the hardiest and most vigorous of those available, and has attained a height of 12 ft after only six years in the Hillier Arboretum (R. Lancaster in The Garden (Journ. R.H.S.), Vol. 101, p. 441 (1976)).