Viburnum prunifolium

Cymes of flowers arise from the leaf axils of blackhaw; the cymes are heavily branched but are sessile on the leaf axil. Individual flowers are 1/4″ across with a 2 mm long calyx tube with five apical lobes that are shorter than the petals; a tubular corolla with five white, rounded lobes (the “petals”); five stamens with white filaments and yellow anthers extending outside the corolla lobes; and a small (less than 1 mm long), cream-colored pistil. The fruit is a fleshy drupe (like a plum or cherry) about 8 mm long containing a single brown nutlet that is flat on one side; the fruit becomes blue-black as it matures. The fruits are edible and popular with birds. Blackhaw is similar to nannyberry (Viburnum lentago, also found in Jackson Park) — both have white flowers and blue-black fruits that are drupes — but nannyberry leaves have a long, narrow tip on their leaves in contrast to the rather blunt tip and reddish petioles on blackhaw leaves. The stamens in blackhaw flowers are slightly shorter than those in nannyberry flowers but the difference is subtle; leaf form and petiole color are better differentiators.

Blackhaw is a native shrub (or small tree); the latter can be up to 15 feet tall. The bark on smaller branches is gray and slightly rough or warty; the bark on the stems, larger branches, and trunks is also gray, but divided into flat-topped plates. The leaves are opposite, up 3″ long and a third as wide, hairless, oval, with finely serrated margins and 1″ long, reddish petioles (sometimes narrowly winged).

Blackhaw is a native shrub (or small tree); the latter can be up to 15 feet tall. The bark on smaller branches is gray and slightly rough or warty; the bark on the stems, larger branches, and trunks is also gray, but divided into flat-topped plates. The leaves are opposite, up 3″ long and a third as wide, hairless, oval, with finely serrated margins and 1″ long, reddish petioles (sometimes narrowly winged). Cymes of flowers arise from the leaf axils; the cymes are heavily branched but are sessile on the leaf axil. Individual flowers are 1/4″ across with a 2 mm long calyx tube with five apical lobes that are shorter than the petals; a tubular corolla with five white, rounded lobes (the “petals”); five stamens with white filaments and yellow anthers extending outside the corolla lobes; and a small (less than 1 mm long), cream-colored pistil. The fruit is a fleshy drupe (like a plum or cherry) about 8 mm long containing a single brown nutlet that is flat on one side; the fruit becomes blue-black as it matures. The fruits are edible and popular with birds. Blackhaw is similar to nannyberry (Viburnum lentago, also found in Jackson Park) — both have white flowers and blue-black fruits that are drupes — but nannyberry leaves have a long, narrow tip on their leaves in contrast to the rather blunt tip and reddish petioles on blackhaw leaves. The stamens in blackhaw flowers are slightly shorter than those in nannyberry flowers but the difference is subtle; leaf form and petiole color are better differentiators.