Arrowwood Viburnum
Scientific name: Viburnum dentatum
A member of the Honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae), Southern arrowwood is a native shrub growing 3-9 feet tall and spreading sometimes up to 8 feet. The plant’s arching branches form an overall rounded crown; twigs are slender, ridged and angled. V. dentatum is an adaptable native, multi-stemmed shrub. Creamy white flowers, dark blue berries and colorful fall foliage make southern arrowwood an attractive landscape plant. It suckers freely from the base. It can be used for borders or screens or as mass plantings and groupings to attract birds, which eat the fruit.
Leaves
Leaves deciduous, opposite, simple, oval to oblong, obovate, or elliptic, 1.5 to 4inches long, with coarsely but regularly toothed margins, shiny dark green above, paler beneath, at least sparsely stellate-pubescent beneath and on the petioles, turning yellow to red or reddish-purple in late fall.
Fruit
The ¼ inch berry-like drupes are ovoid, bluish-black and attractive to wildlife. Fruiting occurs from August – November.
Flowers
Small white flowers are borne in 2 to 4-inch flat-topped clusters in May to early June.
Habitat
Open woods and margins, streambanks. Arrow-wood viburnum prefers loamy, neutral to acid soil with ample moisture, but is adaptable to a range of conditions from dry to fairly wet soil. Localized variations of southern arrowwood occur over the geographic range of the species. Most common differences between the variants are in the shape and size of leaves, the type and placement of pubescence (hairs) on the leaf underside and petioles, and the region of occurrence.
Leaves
Leaves deciduous, opposite, simple, oval to oblong, obovate, or elliptic, 1.5 to 4inches long, with coarsely but regularly toothed margins, shiny dark green above, paler beneath, at least sparsely stellate-pubescent beneath and on the petioles, turning yellow to red or reddish-purple in late fall.
Fruit
The ¼ inch berry-like drupes are ovoid, bluish-black and attractive to wildlife. Fruiting occurs from August – November.
Flowers
Small white flowers are borne in 2 to 4-inch flat-topped clusters in May to early June.
Did You Know?
The common name refers to the Native American use of the straight young stems as arrow shafts.
Photographer: Stefan Bloodworth
Photographer: Ted Bobner
USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Herman, D.E., et al. 1996
Photographer: Stephanie Brundage
More on Trees and Shrubs in Lewisboro
Lewisboro was once entirely forested except for patches of open field caused by fire and wetlands and ponds which were expanded by beaver dams. Although it is hard to believe, by 1800 most of Lewisboro’s forests had been cut down and replaced by farms. In 1820 so many trees had been cleared that there was no shade anywhere along the route from Boston to New York.[1] But by the mid-1800’s farming here became uneconomical and as farms were abandoned, the forests began to re-grow. Today, 70% of New York is once again forest, what some call ‘the great environmental story of the United States’[2]. These new forests provide us with beauty and recreation, clean air and water, flood control, erosion prevention, carbon sequestration, cooler temperatures and habitat for other plants, insects, birds and other wildlife.
[1] Cronon, William. Changes in the Land. Macmillan, 1983.
[2] An Explosion of Green. B. Mckibben. Atlantic Monthly 275 (April 1995): 61-83.