Viburnum lantana

Wayfaring Tree ( Viburnum lantana ) flowers

The Woolly (Viburnum lantana ) is a flowering plant in the family of musk weed plants ( Adoxaceae ). It is used as an ornamental tree.

Description

The Woolly snowball reaches a vigorous, deciduous shrub with upright branches, plant height of 1-4 meters. The bark of the branches is brown and densely covered with stellate hairs ( trichomes ), not woolly.

The oppositely arranged leaves are continually divided into petiole and leaf blade. The petiole is 1 to 3 inches long. The simple, plump, soft, dull green leaf blade is ovate with a length 5 to 12 centimeters and a width of up to 6 centimeters. The leaf margin serrate sharp. The lower leaf surface is hairy gray tomentose and the leaf surface is more or less wrinkled. The buds are naked, so they have no bud scales.

The flowering period extends from April to June. The flowers are borne in a slightly curved, usually siebenstrahligen, schirmrispigen inflorescence, which has a diameter of 5 to 10 cm. The flowers smell something unpleasant. The cream- white crown has a diameter 6-8 mm.

The egg-shaped stone fruits are first red and later gloss black. They are winter stayer, that is, they depend in winter often dried on the branches. Fruit ripening occurs from September.

Occurrence

The circulation area covers Europe from the British Isles to the Mediterranean region, including North Africa with Algeria and Morocco. Furthermore, the occurrence extend beyond the south-eastern Europe to the Caucasus region, northern Iran and Turkey. In Germany the wooly snowball in the northwestern lowlands missing. In Austria, found a high incidence in all provinces.

As the site preferably, these lime-loving plant light deciduous forests (oak mixed forests and pine forests ), thickets and roadsides. It is the wooly snowball to a light - up Halbschattengehölzart.

Taxonomy

Viburnum lantana in 1753, first published by Carl Linnaeus in Species Plantarum, Volume 1, page 268.

Etymology

Both the genus, and the species name refers to the flexible branches of this kind: " Viburnum " derives from the Indo-European root " UeiB " = wind, twist. " lantana " comes from the Latin " lentus " = flexible, tough; slowly

Use

The Woolly snowball is often planted along roads.

Were from the branches of the shrub and arrows are made for archery, which are very elastic and resistant to breakage due to the fibrous structure. Specially Protect the Traditional Archery use them. Even the arrows found in 5300 -year-old glacier mummy Ötzi were made of this wood.

Toxicity

The Woolly snowball contains in the bark of the triterpenes alpha -and beta- amyrin. The ripe fruits contain apparently no toxins.