Wayfaringtree Viburnum          vi-BER-num lan-TA-na

• Deciduous. shrub, 10-15 ft (3-4.5 m), stout spreading branches, rounded, naked buds.  Leaves opposite, simple, leathery, ovate to oblong-ovate, 5-13 cm long, uniform serrations, dark green, wrinkled above, tomentose (dense woolly) below; sometime purplish-red fall color.  In spring (April), small creamy flowers in 7.5-13 cm wide, flat-topped clusters (cymes), have a "crataegus" odor (not pleasant).  Fruit 8 mm long, red, maturing to black, attract birds.
• Sun to part shade, prefers well-drained, loamy soils, tolerates calcareous and dry soils better than other viburnums.  Fibrous rooted.  Birds will (possibly) consume the black raisin fruit.
• Hardy to USDA Zone (3) 4      Native to Europe, including Britain, and western Asia.
• Wayfaringtree
: apparently a tree for the wayfarer, i.e., traveler, V. lantana was common along waysides.  However, John Parkinson (Paradisi in sole Paradisus Terrestris, 1629, a classic work of the English garden) stated that "no travaier doth take either pleasure or profit by it, more then by any other of the hedge trees."  So much for the "accuracy" of common names.
• Oregon State Univ. campus: two large plants just west of the south entrance to Callahan dorm.