Viburnum davidii Franch.

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Viburnum davidii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/viburnum/viburnum-davidii/). Accessed 2025-06-22.

Family

Viburnaceae

Genus

Viburnum

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

androdioecious: With only male or only hermaphrodite flowers on individual plants.

References

There are no active references in this article.

Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Viburnum davidii' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/viburnum/viburnum-davidii/). Accessed 2025-06-22.

This clone of Viburnum davidii has flattened heads of small pinkish white flowers. Meise Botanical Garden (19840115), Belgium. 21 February 2020. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

An evergreen shrub of apparently low, compact habit, and about 3 to 5 ft high; young branches warted. Leaves leathery, narrowly oval or slightly obovate, tapered at the base, more slenderly so at the apex; 2 to 6 in. long, 1 to 21⁄2 in. wide; strongly and conspicuously three-veined, often obscurely or shallowly toothed near the apex, dark green above, pale below, glabrous on both surfaces except for small tufts of down in the vein-axils beneath; stalk 1⁄4 to 1 in. long. Flowers dull white, 1⁄8 in. wide, densely crowded in stalked stiff cymes, 2 to 3 in. across. Fruits blue, 1⁄4 in. long, narrow oval. Bot. Mag., t. 8980.

V. davidii is a native of western China, and was introduced by Wilson for Messrs Veitch in 1904. Whether or not it is actually dioecious, it is so in effect, but many nurserymen now offer both ‘male’ and ‘female’ plants, and both must be grown if the beautiful fruits are to be seen. It received an Award of Merit for these in 1971.

Another clone of Viburnum davidii with pure white flowers, growing in Meise Botanical Garden (19826465), Belgium. 19 April 2014. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Close up on the very small pinkish white flower of Viburnum davidii, densely crowded in stalked stiff cymes. A private garden in Hertain, Belgium. 13 April 2014. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Close up on the reddish pink flower buds of Viburnum davidii. The photographer's garden, Oisquercq, Belgium. 11 April 2023. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

This clone of Viburnum davidii was collected by Mikinori Ogisu in the type locality where Armand David discovered it in west Sichuan. Roy Lancaster's garden (OG94–052) in Winchester, UK. 29 June 2019. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Viburnum davidii is a beautiful and very useful compact evergreen shrub with leathery leaves, flowering usually during late spring. Here in a private garden in Hertain, Belgium. 13 April 2014. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Close up on an emerging purplish new leaf of Viburnum davidii, with three distinctive parallel veins. Garden of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Lille, France. 4 May 2010. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Fruits of Viburnum davidii are rarely seen in cultivation, only on cross-pollinated plants. Their colour is an astonishing metallic blue. Domain of Virly near Soissons, France. 22 October 2024. Image Guillaume Mamdy.

Viburnum Ogisu 95071, with lamina lower surface basal vein axils pubescent (Roy Lancaster's Garden, UK – 10 April 2016). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Viburnum davidii leaves, with the lamina elliptic to obovate, strongly three-veined and the apical part often minutely serrate at margin (Arboretum Het Leen Eeklo, Belgium – 30 March 2010). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Foliage on Viburnum davidii at Arboretum Het Leen Eeklo, Belgium (30 March 2010). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Viburnum davidii Ogisu 95071, leaves, with lamina rather broadly elliptic to ovate (Roy Lancaster's Garden, UK – 10 April 2016). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Strong venation, large size and a glossy sheen make the foliage of Viburnum davidii extremely attractive. Image John Grimshaw.

Sometimes derided as a 'car park plant' Viburnum davidii is really a very handsome and useful evergreen foliage plant (Newby Hall, North Yorkshire, UK, July 2021). Image John Grimshaw.

Viburnum davidii.