Rhamnus costata
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Rhamnus costata' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Genus
Other taxa in genus
- Rhamnus alaternus
- Rhamnus alnifolia
- Rhamnus arguta
- Rhamnus californica
- Rhamnus cathartica
- Rhamnus davurica
- Rhamnus fallax
- Rhamnus frangula
- Rhamnus × hybrida
- Rhamnus imeretina
- Rhamnus infectoria
- Rhamnus japonica
- Rhamnus lanceolata
- Rhamnus pumila
- Rhamnus purshiana
- Rhamnus rupestris
- Rhamnus saxatilis
- Rhamnus tinctoria
- Rhamnus utilis
A deciduous shrub, ultimately 15 ft high, of spreading habit; young shoots glabrous, stout. Leaves opposite, ovate-oblong, pointed, tapering below to a narrowly heart-shaped or cuneate base; unevenly and shallowly toothed, 3 to 5 in. long, 11⁄4 to 21⁄2 in. wide, pale green on both sides, strongly ribbed, ribs about twenty, upper surface wrinkled, and furnished with a few hairs, when quite young; undersurface downy, especially on the ribs; stalk about 1⁄8 in. long, downy on the upper side. Flowers green, few or solitary on slender, glabrous stalks, 3⁄4 to 11⁄4 in. long, produced at the base of the young shoots. Fruits top-shaped, black, 1⁄3 in. across, two-seeded.
Native of Japan; introduced in 1900. One of the handsomest of buckthorns in foliage, and belonging to the many-veined group, which includes R. fallax and R. imeritina. From R. fallax it is distinguished by its downy leaves, and from both by the long flower-stalk and strongly wrinkled upper surface of the leaf. It has also a very short leaf-stalk.