FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
Leaves with smooth petioles, mostly smooth below with some hairs on veins. The velvety twigs were formerly used for arrows.
Synonym(s): Viburnum ashei, Viburnum ashii, Viburnum dentatum
Description: Broad-leaved, deciduous shrub to 3 m. Lower stems characteristically straight.
Leaves: Opposite, egg-shaped, coarsely toothed leaves with acute ends. Leaves 5 to 12 cm long and 4 to 10 cm wide with serrated edges. Undersides pubescent somewhat, along veins and in leaf axils. Petioles are smooth (glabrous).
Flowers/Fruit: White flowers form flat-topped clusters at branch ends. Fruit is a medium to very dark blue-gray drupe. Blooms late March to May; fruits July to September.
Habit and Range: Bottomland swamps, shrub wetlands, stream banks, marshes, tidal wetlands. Most abundant in the Piedmont and western half of the Coastal Plain, but in scattered counties in the Mountains and eastern Coastal Plain.
Taxonomic Note: Also called smooth arrowwood and northern arrowwood (!). Recently split out from Viburnum dentatum, which does not have smooth (glabrous) petioles and does have more rounded leaves on average that are generally smooth below. V. recognitum was called V. dentatum var. lucidum in Radford's key (1968).
COMMON CONFUSIONS:
Viburnum recognitum (southern arrowwood) is similar to Viburnum rafinesqueanum (downy arrowwood) which tends to grow in drier areas, mainly in the Piedmont. V. rafinesquianum has more elongated leaves, with very short or absent petioles and stipules at leaf bases. V. carolinianum (Carolina arrowwood) of the southwestern North Carolina mountains has thick, rounded leaves with deeply impressed veins. V. recognitum was recently split out from the less common Viburnum dentatum (southern arrowwood), which does not have smooth (glabrous) petioles like V. recognitum but does have more rounded leaves on average that are generally smooth below.
Link to side-by-side comparisons page
