Happy Mystery Monday! Can you guess what is pictured in photo below:
The answer to last week’s mystery is arrowwood viburnum, Viburnum dentatum, pictured below:
Viburnum is a genus of about 150-175 species of shrubs with simple leaves that are coarsely toothed or “dentate.” Viburnums tend to be multi-season plants with ornamental value throughout a large part of the season. Variable Fall color ranges from drab yellow to attractive shades of orange and red.
Arrowwood viburnum flowers in late-May to early-June. The more sun the shrub receives, the showier the flowers it will produce. Its flowers are arranged in flat-topped clusters and are not scented.
Arrowwood has gorgeous, dark blue–purple berries that, while not toxic, are not edible to humans. Birds, however, love the fruit.
This shrub tolerates being planted in shade or full sun, as well as both flooding and occasional drought. Arrowwood can be found along wood margins, open woods, stream banks, in moist floodplain forests, wet flatwoods, seepage swamps and even tidal and alluvial swamps.
The common name, arrowwood, is said to originate from the fact that Indigenous Peoples used the stems of the plant to make arrows. The Neolithic Iceman, Otzi, found frozen in the Alps in 1991, was carrying arrow shafts made from viburnum wood
Native viburnums are the host plants for many creatures, including the Spring azure butterfly. Arrowwood has no serious pests and is even tolerant of salt. Deer, disease, or insects usually do not bother them.
Mystery Monday is sponsored by the Spy Newspapers and Adkins Arboretum.
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