Downy Arrowwood Viburnum, Rafinesque Viburnum              vi-BER-num raf-in-es-kwe-A-num

• Broadleaf deciduous shrub, to about 6.5 ft (2 m) high, compact, finely twiggy.  Leaves simple, opposite, ovate to nearly elliptic, 3-5 cm long, base rounded or subcordate, tip acute or acuminate, margin coarsely toothed, 4-6 vein pairs, dark green above, densely soft-pubescent below, petiole 2-6 mm long.  Fall color is scarlet.   Flowers white in broad, flat-topped clusters (cymes), 3-6 cm across.  Fruit ellipsoid, 7-9 mm long, blue-black.
• Sun or partial shade, adapts to many soil types, suckers freely.
• Hardy to USDA Zone (3) 4        Native to much of eastern North America, from Quebec south to Georgia and east to Manitoba, south to Minnesota, Missouri, Arkansas and Kentucky.
• rafinesquianum: in honor of Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1783-1840), a naturalist of French- German parentage who spent most of his life in Sicily and the US and authored some 900 publications (Stearn, 1996).