Viburnum setigerum
Common name: 
Tea Viburnum
Pronunciation: 
vi-BER-num se-TIJ-er-um
Family: 
Adoxaceae, Caprifoliaceae
Genus: 
Type: 
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
No
  • Deciduous shrub, 8-12 ft (2.5-3.5 m) tall, upright, may be open at the base.  Leaves opposite, simple, ovate-lanceolate, 7.5-15 cm long, tip acuminate, base rounded, margin remotely toothed, blue-green to dark green above, silky hairs on veins below, 6-9 vein pairs, may color orange-red in fall; petiole 1-2.5 cm long.  Flowers small, white, in flat-topped clusters (cymes) 2.5-5 cm across, blooms in late spring, somewhat showy.  Fruit about 9 mm long, oval and somewhat flattened, very bright red in late summer and fall, heavy fruiting.
  • Sun
  • Hardy to USDA Zone 5       Native to central and western China.  The leaves were used by the monks on Mount Omei, China (Omei Shan, Mount Emei) to make a sweet tea with medicinal properties, hence the common name.   Introduced to the nursery trade by Ernest Wilson in 1901.  Received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Merit in 1925.
  • setigerum: bristle bearing, (I'm not sure of why this name is applied.)
Click image to enlarge
  • leaves and fruit, early fall

    leaves and fruit, early fall

  • fruit

    fruit