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Key to Species — Part 38

A. Branches slender; winter buds long pointed; petiole margins wavy, broad (V. Lentago) SHEEPBERRY

AA. Branches stout; winter buds stout; petiole margins narrow, not wavy.

B. Leaves and petioles rusty pubescent.

(V. rufidulum) RUSTY NANNYBERRY

BB. Leaves and petioles smooth.

(V. prunifolium) BLACK HAW

Viburnums are related to the elders and belong in the honeysuckle family. They include a multitude of ornamental shrubs, evergreen and deciduous, grown in gardens and shrubberies the world over for their showy flowers and decorative fruits as well as their handsome foliage which often colours brilliantly in the fall. Not all viburnums combine all these desirable horticultural qualities. There are about one hundred species known. They are distributed in the continents of the Northern Hemisphere and extend south to Central America, North Africa and Java. The old-fashioned snowball bush is perhaps the most familiar representative of the genus. The Japanese snowball, with much more handsome foliage and flowers, followed by red berries, is rapidly succeeding the other in popularity.

Sheepberry (Viburnum Lentago, Linn.)--A small round-headed tree, of many slender, pendulous branches. Twigs pubescent, becoming smooth. Bark brown, broken into thick, scaly plates. Wood heavy, hard, brownish yellow, close textured, bad smelling. Buds red; axillary long pointed, in two pubescent scales; terminal, button-like, with long, abruptly tapering scales. Leaves 2 to 3 inches long, ovate, with tapering apex and base, serrate, shining, leathery, opposite, pitted with black underneath; autumn colours orange and red; petioles stout, short, with wavy, winged margins. Flowers, April to June, in flat cymes, 3 to 5 inches across; white, perfect. Fruit, September, oval, dark blue drupes, sweetish, juicy, smooth, with pale bloom on red pedicels, few in a cluster. Preferred habitat, moist soil of rocky stream borders or edges of swamps. Distribution, Quebec to Saskatchewan; south to Alabama along Appalachian Mountains; west to Nebraska, Kansas and Wyoming. Uses: Ornamental shrubs or trees in Eastern States.

The sheepberry, with its shining leaves set opposite, is likely to be mistaken for a dogwood. But the prominent, wavy-winged margins of the petioles are the best distinguishing character. The multitudinous tiny flowers are in cymes like the elders, and after them come a few oval berries of fair size, dark blue, looking not unlike those of a dogwood, for they hang on coral-red branching stems. They are good to eat--if one is very hungry.

The chief merit of this little tree is its beauty, and because of this it finds its way into many Eastern parks and gardens. There is no season when it is not good to look upon. It is a familiar inhabitant of fence rows and the edges of woodlands. It blooms in late May, and holds its ripe fruits over winter for birds to feed upon.

The Rusty Nannyberry (V. rufidulum, Raf.) is easily distinguished by the rusty hairs on its winter buds, petioles, and the veins on the lower side of the leaf. It is quite as handsome (though not yet as well known) as the smooth species just described. It has white flowers and large, bright blue berries. It grows from Virginia to Florida, and west to Illinois and Texas. In gardens it has proved hardy in Boston.

The Black Haw (V. prunifolium, Linn.), with leaves like a plum's, and the narrow petiole margin smooth, has flowers and fruits very much like those of the others. The berries are a trifle smaller, perhaps, and a shade darker. This species is smaller throughout than the other two; it blooms earlier, and has stout branches, like V. rufidulum. It is found from Connecticut to Georgia, and west to Michigan, Kansas, and Texas. In European parks and gardens and in those of our Eastern States this little "stag bush" is often cultivated for its handsome flowers and foliage and its persistent fruit.