A Winter Beauty: Viburnum opulus

Brendan Keegan

hen I think back on my experience as which mature in late fall and can remain on a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine, the plant until the following spring. The vibrant Wmy memories are often drawn to the fruits hang in dense clusters and, although they cold, snowy days of January. In the silence of are primarily consumed by birds, they are also winter afternoons, the plants in the small town edible to humans. Tart and bitter until softened of Terebovlya seemed especially distinct. I often by frost, they are nonetheless believed to have walked through haunting groves of silver birch medicinal properties, and Ukrainians consume (Betula pendula), white bark against the white small quantities raw, baked, or in tea to help snow of fields beyond. Near the school where treat various illnesses. It is also common to see I worked, two magnificent bigleaf lindens fruit clusters adorning entryways, as well as on (Tilia platyphyllos) towered like giants among traditional Ukrainian embroidered clothing, as young European hornbeam (Carpinus betulus). symbols of health and fertility. However, nothing stood out against the winter In North America, the beautiful white lace- gray so much as the bright red fruits of Vibur- cap inflorescences of Viburnum opulus are num opulus, a plant that Ukrainians have long often considered the plant’s defining aesthetic praised in song, poem, and prose as a visceral characteristic. Each cyme is composed of a sin- symbol of beauty and identity. gle ring of large, white petaled, sterile florets Native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa, on the outside and bunches of smaller fertile Viburnum opulus is a multi-stemmed decidu- florets on the inside. Some cultivars, such as ous shrub. It has a rounded growth habit and can the popular V. opulus ‘Roseum’ produce inflo- grow up to 5 meters (16 feet) tall. Although it is rescences composed of entirely sterile flow- known as kalyna in Ukrainian, Western Euro- ers that look like snowballs or pom-poms, peans often call it the guelder rose, so-named for leading to the nickname “snowball tree.” a region of the Netherlands where the popular Another popular cultivar, Viburnum opulus “snowball tree” cultivar supposedly originated. ‘Xanthocarpum’ has the typical flat white cor- In North America, Viburnum opulus is called ymbs, but produces bright golden yellow fruits European cranberrybush, because of its tart, instead of red. cranberry-like red fruits, despite the fact that Earlier this year, I stopped by three Vibur- it is in the moschatel family (Adoxaceae) and num opulus accessions (352-78*A, C, and E, unrelated to the true cranberry (Vaccinium mac- collected in the wild from the northeast of Den- rocarpon), a member of the rhododendron family mark) in our Viburnum Collection. Humble (Ericaceae). (European cranberrybush is V. opulus looking among their neighbors, it was interest- var. opulus; the similar looking American cran- ing to reflect that this plant is ubiquitous in berrybush, previously known as V. trilobum, is small Ukrainian towns and villages where it is now known as V. opulus var. americanum.) proudly planted next to homes. I had the chance During the summer months, Viburnum opu- to reflect on this again later in October when lus bears three-lobed, dark green leaves, 5 to my wife and I were visiting friends in Ukraine. 10 centimeters (2 to 4 inches) long and wide. While there, one of her former colleagues asked These palmate leaves, which resemble those of where I worked, and I stumbled over describing some maples, have deeply impressed venation, the Arnold Arboretum and its mission of plant wrinkled surfaces, and soft undersides. In the research and conservation. However, when he autumn, the foliage often turns beautiful hues followed up my explanation by asking whether of red and purple. or not we grew kalyna, I was proud to say yes. Red is also the color of the fully ripened berry-like drupes (fleshy, single-seeded fruits), Brendan Keegan is a Gardener at the Arnold Arboretum.