Images: ©Jouko Lehmuskallio
Wild Cotoneaster
Cotoneaster scandinavicus
- Family: Rose Family – Rosaceae
- Growing form and height: Shrub. 30–100 cm (12–40 in.).
- Flower: Regular, small, nodding. Calyx-lobes 5, triangular, with hairy margins but otherwise hairless. Petals 5, white to reddish, forming a globose to bell-shaped corolla. Stamens 20. Carpels 3, partly fused. Flowers solitary or in groups of two to four in the leaf axils.
- Leaves: Alternate on the annual shoot. Short-stalked, small, entire. Stalk hairy. Blade oval, toothed, deep green and almost hairless above, grey-downy beneath. Stipules sharp-pointed, reddish. Autumn colour orange.
- Fruit: A fleshy, red berry.
- Habitat: Rock outcrops, coppices, thickets. Rarely an ornamental and an escape.
- Flowering time: May–June.
The Cotoneaster are non-thorny shrubs with smallish, entire leaves. The genus comprises 50–100 species, 40 of which native to Southwestern China. They are plants of montane forests typically growing on cliff-ledges. Several species are popular ornamentals, many mat-like and suitable for rock gardens. The young shoots of the wild cotoneaster are downy, but they turn hairless eventually. The plant is poisonous.
