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Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Viburnum dentatum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
One of the synonyms given by Bean - V. venosum Britt. - refers to a separate species. Likewise, one of the synonyms given for V. dentatum var. pubescens Aiton - V. nervosum Britt. - also seems to be a lapse (perhaps related).
A shrub to about 10 or 15 ft in the wild, with a close grey or brownish bark; branchlets usually downy, sometimes glabrous or almost so. Leaves of thin texture, ovate to broadly so or roundish, 2 to 41⁄2 in. long, 1 to 4 in. wide, sometimes even broader than long, shortly acuminate at the apex, rounded or slightly cordate at the base, almost glabrous above, sparsely stellate-downy beneath; veins five to eleven on each side, straight, impressed above and prominent beneath; marginal teeth usually large and triangular; petiole slender, to 1 in. long, clad with stiff down, usually without stipules. Flowers white, perfect and regular, about 1⁄6 in. wide, borne around midsummer. Corymbs up to 41⁄2 in. wide, on peduncles 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 in. long, its branches downy or Corymbs up to 41⁄2 in. wide, on peduncles 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 in. long, its branches downy or sometimes glabrous. Fruits blue-black, roundish oval, up to 3⁄8 in. long; stone with a narrow and deep groove on one side.
Native of eastern N. America, mostly south of New York; described by Linnaeus from a specimen collected in Virginia and cultivated since the 18th century.
Var. pubescens Aiton, a form with thicker-textured leaves, and branchlets and undersides of leaves densely downy, is no longer recognised as a distinct botanical variety – V. dentatum ‘Longifolium’ is a cultivated form of this with leaves longer than wide (syn. V. longifolium Lodd. ex K.Koch).