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.