Cotoneaster

Cotoneaster glaucophyllus

Family: Malaceae (often included in Rosaceae).

Form: Shrub

Origin: Native of China.

Flowers/Seedhead: Flowers: In white clusters. Each flower about 8 mm wide, 5-petalled. Flower stalk densely hairy. Flowers spring and summer.

Description: Evergreen shrub to 4 m high. Leaves elliptic to ovate 1.5–4 cm wide; leaf stalk 0.7–1.2 cm long. False fleshy fruit (pome) 6–10 mm long, almost globe-shaped. Seeds yellowish, flattened.

Distinguishing features: Distinguished by leaves 3–8 cm long with upper surface hairless and lower surface covered with dense intertwined hairs (woolly) when young but becoming hairless with age. Pome ripening red with 2 seeds.

Dispersal: Spread by birds. Also by fruit washed along watercourses.

Confused With: Cotoneaster lacteus, but Cotoneaster lacteus has leaves with distinctly indented veins on the upper leaf surface and a lower surface that remains hairy with age.