2. VIBURNUM A. L. de Juss.
Trees or shrubs, with tough flexible branchlets, and large winter-buds naked or covered with scales, those of the arborescent North American species enclosed in one pair of valvate scales, the buds containing flower-bearing branches ovoid, swollen below the middle and contracted into a long or short point and subtended by 2 minute lateral generally abortive buds formed in the axils of the last leaves of the previous year, those containing sterile shoots narrow-lanceolate, slightly angled, acute; axillary buds acute, much flattened, and much smaller than the terminal bud. Leaves deciduous (in the American species), without or rarely with stipules, the first pair rudimentary, with small blades and broad boat-shaped petioles, caducous (in the North American arborescent species). Flowers on short bracteolate or bibracteolate pedicels, in terminal or axillary umbel-like flat or panicled cymes, their bracts and bractlets minute, lanceolate, acute, caducous; calyx-tube cylindric, the limb short, equally 5-lobed, persistent on the fruit; corolla rotate, equally 5-lobed, spreading and reflexed after anthesis; stamens inserted on the base of the corolla; filaments elongated, exserted; anthers bright yellow; ovary inferior, 1-celled; style conic, divided at apex into three stigmatic lobes. Fruit 1-celled, with thin sweet acidulous or oily flesh, stone (in the North American arborescent species) coriaceous, oval, short-pointed at apex; much flattened, dull reddish brown, slightly pitted. Seed filling the cavity of the stone, concave on the ventral face, bright reddish brown, the thin coat projected into a red narrow irregular often erose marginal border.
Viburnum with a hundred species is widely and generally distributed through the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and occurs on the mountains of central and western South America, on the Antilles, the islands of the Malay Archipelago, and Madagascar. Of the fifteen North American species four are small trees. Many of the species produce beautiful flowers and fruits, and are frequently cultivated as ornaments of parks and gardens.
Viburnum is the classical name of one of the European species.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Leaves entire or obscurely crenulate; inflorescence long-stalked; winter-buds elongated, narrow-lanceolate, acuminate, covered with rusty scales.1. [V. nudum] (A, C). Leaves sharply serrate; inflorescence sessile or short-stalked. Petioles wing-margined; inflorescence sessile; winter-buds long-pointed, scurfy pubescent.2. [V. Lentago] (A, C, F). Petioles usually without margins. Petioles nearly glabrous; inflorescence short-stalked; winter-buds short-pointed or obtuse, rufous pubescent.3. [V. prunifolium] (A, C). Petioles of early leaves and the short-pointed winter-buds rusty tomentose, inflorescence sessile.4. [V. rufidulum] (A, C).
1. [Viburnum nudum] L.
Leaves broad-elliptic to oval or slightly obovate, or in one form narrow-elliptic (var. angustifolium Torr. & Gray), acute, acuminate or abruptly short-pointed or rarely rounded at apex, cuneate or rounded at base, entire or slightly crenulate, covered when they unfold with rusty scales persistent on the lower side of the midrib and petioles and occasionally on the whole lower surface, thick, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, 4′—6′ long and 1½′—2′ wide, with a prominent midrib, slender veins, and slightly thickened and revolute margins; very variable in the size and shape of the leaves and in the amount of their scurfy covering, those of the southern tree form usually larger than the leaves of more northern shrubs; leaves of the var. angustifolium often not more than 2′ long and ½′ wide; petioles slender, ½′ in length. Flowers appearing from the first of May at the south to the middle of June at the north and occasionally also in the autumn, white or pale cream color, about ¼′ wide, in flat or slightly convex cymes with ovate acute bracts and bractlets, 2′—4′ in diameter and about as long or rather shorter than their peduncle. Fruit ripening late in the autumn, globose, pink at first when fully grown, becoming bright blue, ¼′ in diameter.
A tree, rarely 18′—20′ high, with a tall trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, with spreading nearly horizontal branches forming an open head, and slender branchlets scurfy when they first appear, soon becoming glabrous, reddish brown and lustrous during their first season and greenish brown the following year; usually a small or large shrub, and perhaps only a tree on the borders of swamps near Gainesville, Alachua County, and Palatka, Putnam County, Florida. Winter-buds reddish brown, covered with rusty scales, those containing flower-bearing branches, abruptly long pointed, ½′—¾′ in length.
Distribution. Low moist soil usually in the neighborhood of swamps and streams, and on rich hillsides; southern Connecticut (Milford and Derby, New Haven County), southward through the coast and Piedmont region, to De Soto County (near Sebring), Florida, and westward usually in the neighborhood of the coast to the valley of the lower Brazos River, eastern Texas, and northward through western Louisiana to central Arkansas and western Tennessee; occasionally ascending the Appalachian Mountains to altitudes of 2000°; the var. angustifolium from North Carolina up to altitudes of 3000° on the Blue Ridge, to northern Florida.
2. [Viburnum Lentago] L. Sheepberry. Nannyberry.
Leaves ovate, usually acuminate, with short or elongated points, or sometimes rounded at apex, cuneate, rounded or subcordate at base, and sharply serrate with incurved callous-tipped teeth, when they unfold bronze-green, lustrous, coated on both surfaces of the midrib and on the petioles with thick rufous pubescence, slightly pilose on the upper surface and covered on the lower with short pale hairs, and at maturity bright green and lustrous above, yellow-green and marked by minute black dots below, 2½′—3′ long and 1′—1½′ wide, with a slender midrib, and primary veins connected by conspicuous reticulate veinlets; turning in the autumn before falling deep orange-red or red and orange color; petioles broad, grooved, more or less interruptedly winged or occasionally wingless, 1′—1½′ long, those of the first pair of leaves covered with thick rufous tomentum. Flowers about ¼′ in diameter, slightly fragrant, appearing from the middle of April to the 1st of June in stout-branched scurfy sessile slightly convex cymes 3′—5′ in diameter, with nearly triangular green caducous bracts and bractlets about 1/16′ in length; corolla pale cream color or nearly white, with ovate lobes acute and slightly erose at apex. Fruit ripening in September on slender drooping stalks, in red-stemmed few-fruited clusters, oval or occasionally globose (var. sphaerocarpum A. Gray), thick-skinned, sweet and rather juicy, black or dark blue, and covered with a glaucous bloom; stone about ⅞′ long and 5/16′ wide.
A bushy tree, 20°—30° high, with a short trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, slender rather pendulous branches forming a compact round-topped head, and thin divergent branchlets light green, slightly covered with rufous pubescence when they first appear, and in their first winter light red, scurfy, marked by occasional dark orange-colored lenticels and by narrow leaf-scars displaying 3 conspicuous fibro-vascular bundle-scars, becoming in their second year dark reddish brown and sometimes covered with a glaucous bloom. Winter-buds light red, generally covered with pale scurfy pubescence, those containing flower-bearing branchlets ¾′ in length, abruptly contracted into long narrow tapering points. Bark of the trunk reddish brown and irregularly broken into small thick plates divided on their surface into minute thin appressed scales. Wood bad-smelling, heavy, hard, close-grained, dark orange-brown, with thin nearly white sapwood.
Distribution. Rocky hillsides, along the borders of forests, or near the banks of streams and the margins of swamps, in moist soil; valley of the Rivière du Loup, Province of Quebec, to Saskatchewan, and southward through the northern states to southern Pennsylvania, central Ohio, northern Indiana and southern Wisconsin, northeastern Iowa and eastern Nebraska, and along the Appalachian Mountains up to altitudes of 2500° to West Virginia; on the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota, the Black Hills of South Dakota, on the eastern foothills of the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming and on those of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado (Boulder, Boulder County).
Often cultivated as an ornament of parks and gardens in the eastern United States, and occasionally in Europe.
× Viburnum Jackii Rehd. with characters intermediate between Viburnum Lentago and V. prunifolium is now believed to be a hybrid between those species.
3. [Viburnum prunifolium] L. Black Haw. Stag Bush.
Leaves ovate or rarely obovate, oval or suborbicular, rounded, acute, or short-pointed at apex, cuneate or rounded at base, and usually rather remotely or sometimes finely serrate with rigid incurved callous-tipped teeth, lustrous and tinged with red, glabrous on the lower surface and covered on the upper side of the midrib and on the bright red petioles with scattered reddish hairs when they unfold, and at maturity thick or sometimes coriaceous, dark green and glabrous on the upper surface, pale and glabrous on the lower surface, 1′—3′ long and ½′—3′ wide, with slender primary veins connected by reticulate veinlets; in the autumn turning brilliant scarlet or dark vinous red before falling; petioles terete, grooved, ½′—⅔′ in length, and on vigorous shoots sometimes narrowly wing-margined. Flowers ¼′ in diameter on slender pedicels bibracteolate at apex, in glabrous short-stemmed flat cymes 2′—4′ in diameter, with subulate caducous bracts about 1/16′ long, usually red above the middle; corolla pure white, with oval to nearly orbicular lobes. Fruit ripening in October, in few-fruited red-stemmed clusters, persistent on the branches until the beginning of winter, oval or slightly obovoid, ½′—⅔′ long or rarely globose, dark blue and covered with a glaucous bloom; stone about ½′ long and ⅓′ wide.
A bushy tree, occasionally 20°—30° high, with a short and usually crooked trunk 6′—8′ in diameter, stout spreading rigid branches beset with slender spine-like branchlets, bright red and glabrous when they first appear, soon turning green, and in their first winter gray tinged with red, covered with a slight bloom, and marked by orange-colored lenticels and by the large lunate leaf-scars displaying 3 fibro-vascular bundle-scars, and ultimately dark brown tinged with red; or often a low intricately branched shrub. Winter-buds short-pointed or obtuse, brown, glabrous or scurfy, those containing flower-bearing branches about ½′ long and ¼′ wide, and about twice as large as those containing sterile branchlets. Bark of the trunk ¼′—⅓′ thick, and broken into thick irregularly shaped plate-like red-brown scales. Wood heavy, hard, strong, brittle, close-grained, brown tinged with red, with thick nearly white sapwood of 20—30 layers of annual growth.
Distribution. Dry rocky hillsides, fence-rows and the sides of roads; Fairfield County, Connecticut, and the valley of the lower Hudson River, New York, southward to southeastern Virginia and to the Coast and Piedmont regions of North and South Carolina up to altitudes of 2000° to the valley of the Savannah River (near Augusta, Georgia, Richmond County, rare), and through southern Ohio to Indiana, southern Illinois, southern and western Kentucky, Missouri and eastern Kansas; very abundant in Missouri from the northeastern counties southward through the state.
Often cultivated as an ornament of parks and gardens in the eastern United States, and occasionally in western and northern Europe.
4. [Viburnum rufidulum] Raf. Black Haw.
Leaves elliptic to obovate or oval, rounded, acute, or short-pointed at apex, cuneate or rounded at base, and finely serrate with slender apiculate straight or incurved teeth, covered below and on the wings of the petiole with thick ferrugineous tomentum when they unfold and at maturity coriaceous, dark green and very lustrous above, pale and dull below, usually about 3′ long and ¾′—1½′ wide, with a stout yellow midrib, numerous slender primary veins, and reticulate veinlets more or less covered below throughout the season with rufous tomentum also occasionally found on the upper side of the midrib; petioles stout, grooved, ½′—¾′ long, and margined with broad or narrow wings. Flowers ¼′ in diameter, in sessile 3—5 but usually 4-rayed thick-stemmed ferrugineo-pubescent flat corymbs often 5′—6′ in diameter, with minute subulate bracts and bractlets; corolla creamy white, with orbicular or oblong rounded lobes. Fruit ripening in October, in few-fruited drooping red-stemmed clusters, short-oblong or slightly obovoid, bright blue covered with a glaucous bloom, and ½′—⅔′ long; stone ½′ long and about ⅓′ wide.
A tree, often 40° high, with a trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, short thick branches forming an open irregular head, and stout branchlets marked by numerous small red-brown or orange lenticels, when they first appear more or less coated with ferrugineous tomentum, ashy gray during their first winter, and dark dull red-brown in their second season. Winter-buds ferrugineo-tomentose, those containing flower-bearing branchlets broad-ovoid, full and rounded at base, short-pointed and obtuse at apex, compressed, often ½′ long and ⅓′ wide, and rather larger than those containing sterile branchlets. Bark of the trunk ¼′—½′ thick, separating into narrow rounded ridges divided by numerous cross fissures, and roughened by small plate-like dark brown scales tinged with red. Wood bad-smelling.
Distribution. Dry upland woods and the margins of river-bottom lands; southwestern Virginia and southern Indiana and Illinois to Hernando County, Florida, and through the Gulf States to the valleys of the upper Guadalupe River and of Clear Creek, Brown County, Texas, and to eastern and southwestern Oklahoma (on the Wichita Mountains, Comanche County), eastern Kansas and Central Missouri; most abundant and of its largest size in southern Arkansas, western Louisiana, and eastern Texas.
Occasionally cultivated in the eastern states, and hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts.