Please help ID this unknown Viburnum!

I bought this little tree/shrub from a sale of a bunch of Master Gardeners. I live in Michigan Zone 5.

The tag reads Viburnum Japanese Snowball. However when trying to match the leaves to a particular variety, none are similar to the plant I purchased.

The plant is no more than 2 feet tall. The leaves are sort of an oval shape with pointy end and base and soft jagged edges. The leaves feel slightly fuzzy. Each leaf has a match across from it and some are showing a bit of reddish. I tried to get as detailed as I could.

Any help is appreciated.

For some reason it won't let me post a picture. Every time I hit preview it clears the image location.

Thanks,
Amanda

Try this!

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i300/minertrio/th_Viburnumclose.jpg

This message was edited May 17, 2009 4:17 PM

Japanese Snowball Viburnum should be Viburnum plicatum (or Viburnum plicatum f. plicatum, depending on who's splitting hairs lately).

Keep trying to post the image; if you are browsing your computer for the image, it should work. Otherwise, please repost on the photobucket location a larger or higher resolution image. That one currently is quite small.

From what I can see of it, it looks a lot more like one of the White Oak group oaks (like maybe swamp white oak, Quercus bicolor) than any viburnum.

Sorry. I didn't realize the picture became so small on photobucket. Let me try again...

I don't think it's a White Oak. I have perused all of the photos and none of those seem a match either.

I hope it's in the Viburnum family, at least.

Thanks for the help!

Thank you for the bigger image.

I did not mean the species White Oak (Quercus alba). I said that the leaves favored a member of the White Oak group, meaning the range of oaks that don't have bristle tips on the leaf lobes.

White Oak group species includes:
•Quercus alba White Oak
•Quercus bicolor Swamp White Oak
•Quercus macrocarpa Bur Oak
•Quercus muehlenbergii Chinkapin Oak
•Quercus montana Chestnut Oak
as well as others.

The oaks with bristle tips belong in the Red Oak (sometimes called Black Oak) group, including:
•Quercus rubra Red Oak
•Quercus coccinea Scarlet Oak
•Quercus palustris Pin Oak
•Quercus shumardii Shumard Oak
•Quercus velutina Black Oak

You definitely do NOT have a viburnum there. That is an oak seedling of some sort. I still think it most favors a Swamp White Oak, but those leaves are not fully mature yet.

Take a look at the stem of that plant (post a pic, too). You'll be able to see where past year leaves were formerly attached. You'll see that these are not arranged in opposite positions, but rather alternately along the stem. The current leaves have emerged from a whorl or cluster of buds at the ends of the branches. That is very common for oaks, and is one of the easy ways to ID them, whether dormant or in leaf.

You might be able to teach the Master Gardeners a thing or two after this, but minimally that they need to pay closer attention to labeling.

You are right. After closer inspection, the leaves are not matched, but alternate down the stem.

Thank you for your help. I am so extremely disappointed. I have no desire for this tree and was really excited about my
"value" Viburnum.

Keep up the hunt! Maybe contact with the Master Gardener group will reveal excess unsold plants, and you could take the oak back as a "trade-in". If not, then donate the nice little tree to a good cause elsewhere.

Viburnums should not be very hard to come across. If you haven't already, peruse PlantFiles and other information sources to see the breadth of plants offered in this genus. When you've narrowed the field somewhat, then start your buying search. If you still can't find what you are after, post here again and see if the assembled crowd can't be of assistance.