Viburnum hupehense
Credits
Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles
Recommended citation
'Viburnum hupehense' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Synonyms
- Viburnum wilsonii Rehder
Other taxa in genus
- Viburnum acerifolium
- Viburnum atrocyaneum
- Viburnum betulifolium
- Viburnum × bodnantense
- Viburnum buddleifolium
- Viburnum burejaeticum
- Viburnum × burkwoodii
- Viburnum × carlcephalum
- Viburnum carlesii
- Viburnum cassinoides
- Viburnum cinnamomifolium
- Viburnum cotinifolium
- Viburnum cylindricum
- Viburnum dasyanthum
- Viburnum davidii
- Viburnum deamii
- Viburnum dentatum
- Viburnum dilatatum
- Viburnum edule
- Viburnum erosum
- Viburnum erubescens
- Viburnum farreri
- Viburnum foetidum
- Viburnum 'Fulbrook'
- Viburnum furcatum
- Viburnum × globosum
- Viburnum grandiflorum
- Viburnum harryanum
- Viburnum henryi
- Viburnum × hillieri
- Viburnum japonicum
- Viburnum 'Juddii'
- Viburnum kansuense
- Viburnum lantana
- Viburnum lantanoides
- Viburnum lentago
- Viburnum lobophyllum
- Viburnum macrocephalum
- Viburnum molle
- Viburnum mullaha
- Viburnum nudum
- Viburnum odoratissimum
- Viburnum 'Oneida'
- Viburnum opulus
- Viburnum orientale
- Viburnum parvifolium
- Viburnum phlebotrichum
- Viburnum plicatum
- Viburnum plicatum cultivars
- Viburnum 'Pragense'
- Viburnum propinquum
- Viburnum prunifolium
- Viburnum rafinesqueanum
- Viburnum recognitum
- Viburnum × rhytidocarpum
- Viburnum × rhytidophylloides
- Viburnum rhytidophyllum
- Viburnum rigidum
- Viburnum rufidulum
- Viburnum sargentii
- Viburnum schensianum
- Viburnum setigerum
- Viburnum sieboldii
- Viburnum suspensum
- Viburnum sympodiale
- Viburnum tinus
- Viburnum trilobum
- Viburnum utile
- Viburnum veitchii
- Viburnum wrightii
Editorial Note
Viburnum wilsonii is treated as a synonym of Viburnum hupehense by POWO (12/5/2025) - following Gayraud (2022) - but both are synonymised with V. betulifolium by Flora of China (2025), as is V. lobophyllum. As treated in the Flora of China, it is described ‘a most polymorphic species, perhaps including many geographic races’. Since Bean’s separate entries relate to material with diverse provenances, with potentially significant horticultural ramifications, we reproduce the text for the individual entries below.
Viburnum hupehense: A deciduous shrub, the young shoots stellately hairy the first year, purplish brown the second. Leaves broad-elliptic or roundish ovate, long-pointed, truncate or slightly heart-shaped at the base, coarsely toothed, dark green and covered with loose stellate down above, paler and more downy beneath, 2 to 3 in. long, 11⁄4 to 21⁄4 in. wide, veins in six to eight pairs; leaf-stalk grooved, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. long, densely downy; stipules narrowly lanceolate, downy. Corymbs about 2 in. wide, the main and secondary flower-stalks covered densely with stellate down; branches of the corymb usually five. Fruits egg-shaped, red, 1⁄3 to 2⁄5 in. long. Bot. Mag., n.s., t. 41.
Viburnum wilsonii: A deciduous shrub 6 to 10 ft high with very downy young shoots. Leaves ovate to roundish oval, rounded or broadly tapered at the base, the apex slender or even tail-like, toothed, 11⁄2 to 31⁄2 in. long, half as much wide, dark green and with usually some hairs above, at least on the veins; clothed beneath either on the veins and midrib with mostly simple hairs, or all over the lower surface with star-shaped hairs and some long simple ones; veins in six to nine pairs; stalk 1⁄4 to 3⁄8 in. long, hairy and starry-downy. Flowers white, all fertile, 1⁄4 in. wide, opening in June in a terminal five- or six-branched corymb 2 to 3 in. wide; main and secondary flower-stalks velvety with down. Corolla 1⁄5 in. wide, the lobes roundish ovate; calyx downy. Fruits bright red, egg-shaped, 1⁄3 in. long, slightly hairy.
Viburnum hupehense: Native of Hupeh and Szechwan, China; discovered by Henry; introduced by Wilson in 1908. It is nearly related to V. dilatatum (from which it differs in its orbicular-ovate leaves, and stipuled leaf-stalks), and to V. betulifolium, from which it is distinct in being downy on both leaf surfaces. As a fruiting shrub it is scarcely inferior to either. Award of Merit 1952.
Viburnum wilsonii: Native of Szechwan, China; discovered by Wilson in 1904 and introduced by him in 1908 to the Arnold Arboretum, Mass., whence it was obtained for Kew the following year. The plants which were raised from Wilson’s No. 1120 flower and bear fruit regularly at Kew. Rehder compared it with V. hupehense, but that species has stipules attached towards the base of the leaf-stalks which are absent in V. wilsonii. In the downiness of leaf and inflorescence they are very similar.
