Viburnum wrightii

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked. It is ovoid, about 8 mm long, and contains a single large seed.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate plant. It suits hardiness zones 6-8. Arboretum Tasmania.

Asia, Australia, Central Asia, Japan, Korea, Tajikistan, Tasmania,

How to Identify

A shrub. It grows 3.5 m high and spreads 3 m wide. It loses its leaves during the year. The leaves are broadly oval and bright green. They turn red in autumn. The flowers are white and in flat clusters. The fruit are shiny and red.

How to Grow

An easily grown plant, it succeeds in most soils but is ill-adapted for poor soils and for dry situations. It prefers a deep rich loamy soil in sun or semi-shade. Best if given shade from the early morning sun in spring. Plants are self-incompatible and need to grow close to a genetically distinct plant in the same species in order to produce fruit and fertile seed. A very ornamental plant. The sub-species V. wrightii hessei. (Koehne.)Rehd. is a dwarf form that usually produces an abundance of berries.

Propagation: Seed is best sown in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe. Germination can be slow, sometimes taking more than 18 months. If seed is harvested green — fully developed but not yet fully ripened — and sown immediately in a cold frame, it should germinate in spring. Stored seed requires 2 months warm then 3 months cold stratification and can still take 18 months to germinate. Prick out seedlings into individual pots when large enough to handle and grow on in a cold frame or greenhouse. Plant out into permanent positions in late spring or early summer of the following year. Softwood cuttings taken in early summer in a frame: pot up into individual pots once rooting begins and plant out in late spring or early summer the following year. Half-ripe cuttings, 5–8 cm long with a heel if possible, taken in July/August in a frame: pot up as soon as rooting starts. These cuttings can be difficult to overwinter and are best kept in a greenhouse or cold frame until the following spring before planting out. Mature wood cuttings taken in winter in a frame should root in early spring — pot up when large enough and plant out in summer if sufficient new growth has been made, otherwise overwinter in a cold frame and plant out the following spring. Layering of current season's growth in July/August takes 15 months.

Medicinal Uses

None known

Other Uses

None known

Deciduous shrub growing to 3 m (9ft 10in). Hardy to UK zone 5. Flowers May to June; seeds ripen in August. Hermaphroditic, insect-pollinated, and not self-fertile. Tolerates light sandy, medium loamy, and heavy clay soils with mildly acidic to mildly alkaline pH. Grows in semi-shade or full sun and prefers moist soil.

Notes

There are about 150 Viburnum species. Also put in the family Caprifoliaceae.

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