Images
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Morphology
- Trunk
- Stems erect; branches unarmed; bark dark gray to grayish black, fissures shallow, ridges blocky, flat; wood reddish brown, hard.
- Twigs
- Brown to grayish brown, rigid, densely rusty-tomentose initially, glabrescent; leaf scars crescent-shaped; buds reddish brown, ovoid, .2 to .3 inch, apex acute, scales densely stellate-pubescent.
- Leaves
- Deciduous, opposite, simple; petiole .2 to .5 inch, sparsely to densely rusty stellate-pubescent; blade ovate to obovate or broadly elliptic, 1.6 to 3.2 inch long, 1.2 to 2.4 inch wide, base cuneate to rounded, margins finely serrate to serrulate, apex acute to rounded or emarginate, lower surface light green to light yellowish green, densely stellate-pubescent initially, eventually sparsely stellate-pubescent, upper surface dark green, sparsely rusty stellate-pubescent along midrib.
- Flowers
- Inflorescences terminal on new growth, cymes, rounded to flat-topped, 2.4 to 3.6 inches wide, 50-150-flowered; peduncles 0 to .24 inch, glabrous; pedicels .12 to .2 inch, glabrate. Flower bisexual, radially symmetric; hypanthium green, cylindric, .06 to .08 inch; sepals 5, connate proximally, lobes triangular; petals 5, connate proximally, corolla rotate, lobes white, elliptic, .1 to .14 inch; stamens 5; pistil 1; style 1, ca. 08 inch; stigma 3-4-lobed.
- Fruit
- September-October; drupes, bluish purple to bluish black, ellipsoid to ovoid, slightly compressed, .5 to .6 inch long, .35 to .43 inch wide, glabrous, glaucous; stone 1, brown, ovate, strongly compressed, .35 to .43 inch long, .24 to .3 inch wide, rough.
Ecology
- Habitat
- Floodplain and upland forests and woodlands, rocky hillsides, roadsides.
- Distribution
- East 1/2 of Kansas, principally in the southeast quarter
Quick Facts
- Plant Type
- Tree
- Family
- Adoxaceae - Moschatel Family
- Height
- Shrubs, to 10 feet
- Origin
- Native
- Last Updated
- 2019-12-08
Flowering Period
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Blooms: April, May