Viburnum plicatum var. plicatum
Common name: 
Japanese Snowball Viburnum
Pronunciation: 
vi-BER-num pli-KA-tum
Family: 
Adoxaceae, Caprifoliaceae
Genus: 
Viburnum
Synonyms: 
V. plicatum
V. tomentosum var. sterile
Type: 
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
No
  • Deciduous shrub, 8-15 ft (2.1-4.5 m), equal width, arching, horizontal branches.  Leaves opposite, simple, 7.5-15 cm long, half as wide, ovate, coarsely serrate, pubescent underneath, turn purplish in fall.  Flowers white, sterile, in spherical clusters, 5-7.5 cm diam., borne in opposite rows along horizontal branches.  No fruit is formed.
  • Sun to part shade, less susceptible to aphids than V. opulus.
  • Hardy to USDA Zone 4      Native to China and Japan, known only in cultivation.
  • The taxonomic type that was the basis for first naming this species (V. plicatum) was the sterile, garden form, V. plicatum var. plicatum (Japanese Snowball), with its spherical ("snowball") flower clusters.  The wild, fertile, type of the species, V. plicatium var. tomentosum (Doublefile Viburnum), with its flat-topped flower clusters, was discovered later by European botanists and named as a separate form (Flint, 1999). 
  • Corvallis: older specimen in front of "Bexell House" at 767 Jefferson Ave.
Click image to enlarge
  • plant habit, spring flowering

    plant habit, spring flowering

  • arching branches with flower clusters and leaves

    arching branches with flower clusters and leaves

  • flower clusters and leaves

    flower clusters and leaves

  • leaves and flower clusters

    leaves and flower clusters

  • flower cluster, comparison

    flower cluster, comparison

  • leaves and flowers, comparison

    leaves and flowers, comparison