Family | Adoxaceae, Summer's Snowballs

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Garden ID

Family | Adoxaceae

Moschatel (muskroot) Family 

The moschatel family includes adoxa, sinadoxa, sambucus (elders), and viburnum. They are characterised by opposite toothed leaves, small five- or, more rarely, four-petalled flowers in cymose inflorescences, and the fruit being a drupe.

Chinese Snowball | Viburnum macrocephalum

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Adoxa__________________________

Moschatel, Adoxa moschatellina 
 Thomé, Flora von Deutschland,
Österreich und der Schweiz (1885)

Adoxa Moschatellina
Georg Dionysius Ehret 1708-1770, 
The Morgan Library and Museum

Sambucus________________________

Elderberry, Sambucus

Friedrich Gottlob Hayne 

from

True representation and description of medical plants, 1813

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Viburnum________________________

Chinese Snowball | Viburnum macrocephalum

Family:

Adoxaceae

Chinese Snowball | Viburnum macrocephalum

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This semi-evergreen or evergreen shrub has a rounded form. In late spring, it bears flower clusters—sometimes up to 8 inches wide—that start out chartreuse and turn pure white. Dark green leaves are semi-evergreen in southern states, where it can grow to 20 feet high and 15 feet wide. Use as a border in large areas. It can survive iin hardness zones 6-9.

Viburnum macrocephalum, commonly called Chinese snowball viburnum, is native to China. It is a rounded, vase-shaped shrub that typically matures to 6-10' tall in the St. Louis area, but may reach 15-20’ tall in the warmer climates of the deep South. Non-fragrant, sterile florets (each to 1 1/4" wide) bloom in dense globose clusters (to 5-8" wide) in May to early June. Florets emerge lime green, but quickly turn white. Pubescent, finely-toothed, ovate to elliptic, dark green leaves (to 2-4” long) are deciduous in the northern parts of its growing range, but semi-evergreen in the southern parts of its growing range. Flowers are sterile, therefore no fruit is produced. Viburnum macrocephalum var. keteleeri is the wild form which has both sterile and fertile florets.

CareProvide moist but well-drained soil. Shelter from cold, drying winds.

Family:

Adoxaceae

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