Viburnum molle Michx.

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Viburnum molle' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/viburnum/viburnum-molle/). Accessed 2025-07-08.

Family

  • Viburnaceae

Genus

Synonyms

  • Viburnum demetrionis W.Deane & B.L.Robb

Glossary

glabrous
Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
glandular
Bearing glands.
petiole
Leaf stalk.

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 molle' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/viburnum/viburnum-molle/). Accessed 2025-07-08.

Editorial Note

The synonym given by Bean (V. demetrionis) is unplaced by POWO (12/5/2025), which also does not recognise var. affine.

A deciduous shrub of bushy habit, 6 to 12 ft high; young shoots glabrous and bright green at first, soon turning grey; older bark peeling. Leaves broadly ovate to roundish, 2 to 5 in. long, 134 to 334 in. wide, mostly heart-shaped at the base, slender-pointed, coarsely triangular toothed, the teeth twenty to thirty on each side, upper surface dark green and glabrous, paler and more or less downy beneath; stalk 12 to almost 2 in. long. Flowers white, all perfect, 14 in. across, produced in long-stalked cymes 2 to 4 in. wide. Fruits scarcely 12 in. long, oval, much compressed, blue-black.

Native of eastern-central North America, rare in gardens (the plant once grown as V. molle was a form of the V. dentatum complex). V. molle is very distinct from other American viburnums with blue-black fruits in the combination of the loose peeling bark of the older branches, the long-stalked leaves, and the presence of a pair of glandular-downy stipules on the petiole.

In var. affine (Blake) House the leaves are more or less glabrous beneath.