Viburnum opulus L.

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Viburnum opulus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/viburnum/viburnum-opulus/). Accessed 2026-04-11.

Family

Viburnaceae

Genus

Viburnum

Common Names

Guelder Rose

Infraspecifics

Other taxa in genus

Glossary

glabrous: Lacking hairs smooth. glabrescent Becoming hairless.
globose: globularSpherical or globe-shaped.
linear: Strap-shaped.
truncate: Appearing as if cut off.

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 opulus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/viburnum/viburnum-opulus/). Accessed 2026-04-11.

Stems of the large Viburnum opulus at Coton Manor, Northamptonshire, UK, in late May 2025. Image John Grimshaw.

A deciduous shrub forming a thicket of erect, grey stems, 10 to 15 ft high; young wood glabrous, ribbed. Leaves three- (sometimes four- or five-) lobed, maple-like, 2 to 4 in. long, often as much or more wide, the base truncate, the lobes pointed, coarsely and irregularly toothed, dark green and glabrous above, more or less downy beneath; stalk 1⁄2 to 1 in. long, with two thin linear stipules at the base and large, concave glands near the leaf-blade. Cymes 2 to 3 in. across, with a border of sterile, showy white flowers, 3⁄4 in. in diameter, the centre composed of small fertile flowers; anthers yellow. It blossoms in early June. Fruits bright red, globose, 1⁄3 in. wide.

Native of Europe (including Britain), northwest Africa, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and parts of Central Asia. Whilst in beauty of flower the Guelder rose is inferior to many viburnums, it is inferior to none in this country in its fruits, or in the rich hues of its decaying foliage. Many other species, no doubt, have fruits as beautiful, but they do not set them in our gardens with the certainty of this. Its only fault is that black fly (bean aphis) also like it.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

V. sargentii. – This is not confined to north-east Asia (see page 709); it also occurs as far south as north-west Hupeh.

A huge specimen of Viburnum opulus, 5–6 m tall at Coton Manor, Northamptonshire, UK, in late May 2025. Image John Grimshaw.

Viburnum opulus has petioles with strap-like stipules at base and concave glands near the lamina (Arboretum Het Leen Eeklo, Belgium – 23 June 2010). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Foliage on Viburnum opulus, with its typical 3-lobed leaves (Arboretum Het Leen Eeklo, Belgium – 23 June 2010). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Viburnum opulus and its atractive infructescence, on a plant at Arboretum Het Leen Eeklo, Belgium (2 September 2010). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Vigorous coppice regrowth on Viburnum opulus (Yorkshire Arboretum, UK, early August 2023). Image John Grimshaw.

Viburnum opulus subsp. calvescens SICH 1774: this widely spread Asian taxon is said to differ from subsp. opulus only in having a thicker bark and purple anthers (creamy-white in subsp. opulus) (Yorkshire Arboretum, UK, June 2023). Image John Grimshaw.

The Guelder Rose glowing in late summer sun at the Queen's View in Highland Perthshire, Scotland, UK. 26th August 2022. Image Tom Christian.

Long-persistent red berries are a valuable feature of Viburnum opulus (Yorkshire Arboretum, UK, November 2021). Image John Grimshaw.

'Aureum'

Leaves bright yellow. This needs some shade.

'Compactum'

Of lower and denser habit. Free fruiting. Award of Merit 1962. Not to be confused with ‘Nanum’.

An eye-catching display of fruit on Viburnum opulus 'Compactum' in a mixed border at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire, UK (September 2022). Image Jack Aldridge.

'Fructu-luteo'

Fruits translucent yellow. In cultivation 1901 and probably much earlier (V. o. fructu-luteo Hort. ex Kew Hand-list; V. o. var. luteum Bean). Edwin Beckett, the garden manager at Aldenham, suggested that the name fructu-luteo should be used for a form with fruits pink at first, becoming dark chrome yellow, slightly tinged with pink (Gard. Chron., Vol. 88 (1930), p. 281.

Highly decorative yellow berries on Viburnum opulus 'Fructu-luteo' (Yorkshire Arboretum, October 2021). Image John Grimshaw.

Viburnum opulus 'Fructu-luteo' at late flowering stage: this clone has no red pigments and appears pale throughout (Ray Wood, Castle Howard, North Yorkshire, June 2022). Image John Grimshaw.

'Nanum'

A curious dwarf form of tufted habit, growing 1 to 3 ft high. Its leaves are {3/4} to 1{1/2} in. wide. It rarely or never flowers.

Viburnum opulus 'Nanum' is so small that it is considered acceptable for exhibition at shows of alpine plants, as here at the Alpine Garden Society's show in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, October 2022. Image John Grimshaw.

In contrast to the demure potted plant, here's a huge mass of Viburnum opulus 'Nanum' given space to expand in woodland garden conditions (Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden, Seattle, June 2023). Image John Grimshaw.

Viburnum opulus 'Nanum' (Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden, Seattle, June 2023). Image John Grimshaw.

'Notcutt's Variety'

A vigorous bush to about 12 ft high, with larger fruits than usual and fine autumn colour.

'Roseum'

Common Names
Snowball Tree

Synonyms / alternative names
'Sterile'

In this form all the flowers are of the sterile kind, and the cyme in consequence becomes transferred into a globose head of white, closely packed blossoms, 2 to 2{1/2} in. across. This is one of the most beautiful of hardy shrubs, but of course the fruiting beauty of the common Guelder rose is sacrificed. ‘Roseum’ has been known in European gardens since the 16th century and was usually called ‘Sambucus rosea’ or Rose Elder, probably from a fancied resemblance of the florets to single roses. The name ‘Guelder Rose’, now used for the species as a whole, originally belonged exclusively to this double form and suggests that it originated in the region of the Netherlands known as Gelderland. Miller called the wild form ‘Marsh Elder’ or ‘Guelder Rose with flat flowers’.

Viburnum opulus 'Roseum' in a copperplate engraving for Basilius Besler's Hortus Eystettensis (1613). Image Biodiversity Heritage Library www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/98364#page/21/mode/1up.

A particularly large inflorescence of Viburnum opulus 'Roseum', borne on a vigorous shoot (RBG Kew, late May 2025). Image John Grimshaw.

The blush of pink as the sterile flowers age is presumably the source of the name 'Roseum' for the mophead form of Viburnum opulus, despite Bean's interpretation (RBG Kew, late May 2025). Image John Grimshaw.

A fine demonstration of why Viburnum opulus 'Roseum' has been a valued garden plant for centuries (Oxfordshire, May 2012). Image John Grimshaw.

'Xanthocarpum'

Plants under the name V. opulus xanthocarpum were distributed by Späth’s nursery, Berlin, from 1910 onward, and were described as having golden-yellow fruits. Two plants have received awards in Britain under this name. One was shown by Sir William Lawrence in 1932; it came from Aldenham, and was ‘Xanthocarpum’ as understood by Edwin Beckett (see his article under ‘Fructu-luteo’), in which the fruits are golden-yellow from the start. This appears to have been a rather weak-growing plant; it received an Award of Merit, however. The plant that received a First Class Certificate when shown by the Crown Estate Commissioners, Windsor, in 1966, had fruits starting apricot yellow and becoming translucent saffron-yellow (Journ. R.H.S., Vol. 91 (1966), p. 519 and fig. 251).

'Xanthocarpum Nanum'

A dubious name for an uncertain plant. A plant under this name is grown at the Yorkshire Arboretum, obtained from the former Gloucestershire nurseryman Chris Pattison. It is certainly short and compact, and has yellow fruits, so the descriptive but almost certainly illegitimate name fits.

Flowers of Viburnum opulus 'Xanthocarpum Nanum' (Yorkshire Arboretum, UK, late May 2024). Image John Grimshaw.