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Viburnum rufidulum Raf.

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Viburnum rufidulum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/viburnum/viburnum-rufidulum/). Accessed 2024-09-16.

Common Names

  • Southern Black Haw

Synonyms

  • V. rufotomentosum Small
  • V. prunifolium var. ferrugineum Torr. & Gr.

Glossary

apex
(pl. apices) Tip. apical At the apex.
midrib
midveinCentral and principal vein in a leaf.
ovate
Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.
perfect
(botanical) All parts present and functional. Usually referring to both androecium and gynoecium of a flower.

References

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Credits

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

Recommended citation
'Viburnum rufidulum' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/viburnum/viburnum-rufidulum/). Accessed 2024-09-16.

Viburnum rufidulum

Viburnum rufidulum flowers with the emerging leaves. The nectar-rich flowers attract butterflies, bees and other insects (wild plant, Brazos Bend State Park, Texas, USA – 27 February 2024). Image Julian Sutton.

A deciduous shrub of very rigid, thin habit, described as becoming a tree often 40 ft high in the wild; young shoots more or less covered with a rust-coloured down; winter buds reddish brown. Leaves stiff and leathery, oval, ovate, or obovate; rounded, blunt, or shortly pointed at the apex, wedge-shaped or rounded at the base, toothed, 2 to 4 in. long, 1 to 11⁄2 in. wide, dark shining green above, covered beneath when young with a reddish short down, much of which falls away before the leaf drops; stalks 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long, stout, more or less winged, and densely covered with rusty coloured down. Flowers white, all perfect, 1⁄3 in. across, borne on cymes 3 to 5 in. across. Fruits blue, 1⁄2 to 2⁄3 in. long.

Native of the southern United States; introduced to Kew in 1902. It belongs to the same group as V. prunifolium and V. lentago, from both of which it differs in its dense covering of rusty down especially on the leaf-stalk and midrib. Its habit, too, as a young shrub, is curiously rigid and its foliage narrower. It does not flower very freely in Britain but the leaves sometimes colour red in the autumn.

Viburnum rufidulum

Viburnum rufidulum growing as a small tree in the understorey of deciduous woodland on a floodplain (Brazos Bend State Park, Texas, USA – 27 February 2024). Image Julian Sutton.

Viburnum rufidulum

Viburnum rufidulum making an upright, floriferous shrub in cultivation under light tree canopy (Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, Texas, USA – 12 March 2024). Image Julian Sutton.

Viburnum rufidulum

The initially rust-coloured scurfy down on Viburnum rufidulum (UBC BG, Canada – 21 July 2012). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Viburnum rufidulum

Foliage, showing leaves with the lamina elliptic, on a Missouri wild origin Viburnum rufidulum plant at the University of British Colombia BG, Canada (21 July 2012). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Viburnum rufidulum

Finely serrulate lamina margin on Viburnum rufidulum (University of British Colombia BG, Canada – 21 July 2012). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Viburnum rufidulum

The shiny foliage on Viburnum rufidulum, shows leaves with the lamina elliptic to obovate, this is taken from a wild origin plant at the Plantentuin Universiteit Gent, Belgium (19 June 2012). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

Viburnum rufidulum

Leaf variation on Viburnum rufidulum (Plantentuin Universiteit Gent, Belgium (19 June 2012). Image © Jan De Langhe - Arboretum Wespelaar.

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