Shrub 1 - 5 m tall

Leaves: opposite, stalked, shiny green above, dull green beneath, 4 - 10 cm long, rounded to lance- egg-shaped with a heart-shaped base (sometimes) and pointed to rounded tip, sharp-toothed, sometimes with star-shaped hairs on the lower surface (at least on the veins or in vein axils). Leaf stalks 8 mm - 2.5 cm long, sometimes with star-shaped hairs.

Flowers: in branched, compound clusters (cymes), which are borne terminally on the stems. Cymes mostly five- to seven-rayed, flat-topped, to about 13 cm wide. The leaves subtending the cymes have leaf stalks over 7 mm long. Corolla five-lobed, white, 4 - 5 mm wide, bell-shaped, sometimes sparsely hairy internally. Corolla tube to 1.2 mm long, 2 - 3 mm wide. Stamens five, exserted from the corolla. Anthers yellow. Stigma three-lobed.

Fruit: berry-like (drupe), in red-stemmed clusters, bluish black, 5 - 10 mm wide, spherical, single-seeded.

Twigs: slender, angled, downy when young, becoming hairless with age.

Form: rounded with arching branches.

Similar species: Viburnum rafinesquianum is similar but has stipules on the leaf stalks. Also, the leaves subtending its inflorescence have leaf stalks no longer than 7 mm. Three varieties of V. dentatum occur in the Chicago Region: dentatum, lucidum, and scabrellum. See their links below.

Flowering: May to June

Habitat and ecology: Introduced from farther east. An escape from cultivation. Found in fields, woods, and disturbed areas.

Occurence in the Chicago region: non-native

Notes: About 200 species of Viburnum occur between North America, Europe and Asia. Many are ornamental shrubs cultivated for their showy flowers, autumn foliage, and attraction to wildlife.

Etymology: Viburnum is the Latin word for the Wayfaring tree. Dentatum means toothed.

Author: The Morton Arboretum

Shrub 1-5 m, with close gray-brown or reddish bark; petioles 8-25 mm, glabrous or stellate, usually exstipulate; lvs lance-ovate to rotund, 4-10 cm, sharply acute or short- acuminate to broadly rounded, sharply toothed; cyme mostly 5-7-rayed, the peduncle 3-6 cm; hypanthium glabrous, sparsely glandular, or setose; stylopodium pubescent; fr blue-black, subglobose to ovoid, 5-10 mm; stone ellipsoid, plump, deeply grooved on one side; 2n=36, 54, 72. Me. to Ill., s. to Fla. and Tex., and elsewhere as an escape from cult. May-July. Variable in morphology and habitat; divisible into several vars.:

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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