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Viburnum lantanoides
Also called Witch Hobble, American Wayfaring Tree, Hobble Bush, Alder Leaved Viburnum, Moosewood
Hobblebush is a native woodland shrub of eastern North America, prized for its large white flower clusters and rooting, arching branches. It grows best in cool, moist, shaded woodland conditions with rich acidic soil.
Viburnum lantanoides (commonly known as hobble-bush, witch-hobble, alder-leaved viburnum, American wayfaring tree, and moosewood) is a perennial shrub of the family Viburnaceae (formerly in the Caprifoliaceae), growing 2–4 meters (6.6–13.1 ft) high with pendulous branches that take root where they touch the ground. These rooted branches form obstacles which easily trip (or hobble) walkers – hence the common name.
The shrub forms large clusters of white to pink flowers in May–June. The flowers on the outer edge of the clusters are much larger (3–5 cm across). The whole cluster is typically 10 cm across. It has large, cardioid leaves which are serrate, 10–20 cm long. The bark is gray-brown and warty and the fruit is a red drupe, which turns to black when ripe.
Viburnum lantanoides is found in the eastern U.S. and Canada from Georgia to the Canadian Maritimes.
Mapleleaf viburnum · Viburnum arboreum · Mexican arrowwood · Viburnum awabuki · Birchleaf Viburnum · Viburnum ×bodnantense · Bracted arrowwood · Manchurian Viburnum · Burkwood viburnum · Viburnum ×carlcephalum · Korean spice viburnum · Carolina Arrowwood
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Viburnum lantanoides by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
