Nannyberry Viburnum or Sheepberry

(Caprifoliaceae - Honeysuckle Family)

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• Form
  • large ornamental shrub or small ornamental tree
  • maturing at up to 18' tall by 10' wide
  • upright broad-columnar growth habit in youth, becoming an upright thicket if shrubform, or becoming rounded to arching-pendulous if treeform
  • medium growth rate

• Culture
  • full sun to partial shade
  • prefers moist, well-drained soils of average fertility in full sun, but is adaptable to poor soils, compacted soils, soils of various pH, permanently moist soils, dry soils, moderate heat, drought, and pollution
  • propagated by rooted stem cuttings, seeds, or transplanting of suckers
  • Honeysuckle Family, with no serious pest or disease problems, except for powdery mildew as an annual leaf cosmetic disease, which usually occurs in late August or early September and is persistent until leaf drop
  • moderately available in ball and burlap from, and primarily sold as a multistemmed shrub, but also trained into single-leader or multi-trunked tree forms

• Foliage
  • medium- to dark green, shiny, opposite, elliptical, and serrated, with a widened and concave, winged petiole that has warty, undulating margins
  • fall color is a mixture of faded shades of green, purple, red, and yellow, along with white from the powdery mildew, and is ornamentally poor

• Flowers
  • creamy-white, flat-topped inflorescences in early May are up to 5" in diameter, and eventually separate in the middle as several sectors containing many miniature flowers

• Fruits
  • a colorful mixture of light green, pale yellow, and red-pink fruits in the same cluster slowly change to blue-black and are bloomy (glaucous-surfaced) at maturity, often profusely borne from August through early December and subtlely attractive when viewed up-close, but not ornamental from a distance
  • wildlife (especially birds) will consume the fruits throughout Autumn

• Twigs
  • stems and young branches are brown and smooth, sparsely branched in youth, and only become relatively dense and twiggy with maturity
  • Winter buds are long, smooth, and a good identification feature, with the more narrow vegetative buds being valvate with two outer scales, while the much larger floral buds are distinctly swelled at their base and taper to a very long apex, with the two outer scales creating a duck-billed appearance

• Trunk
  • strongly multi-stemmed to multi-trunked and suckering from the base and nearby roots, but can be maintained as a few-trunked or single leader small tree if the suckers are periodically nipped, starting at an early age
  • branches are straight and upright in youth, of gray-brown color, smooth, and with noticeable lenticels, but becoming a platy bark with age
  • shrubform quickly becomes leggy with age if suckers are constantly pruned away, but suckers create a thicket or colony if allowed to persist, and effectively cover the central trunks of the large shrub

• ID Summary
  • multitrunked, strongly ascending young branches form a broad-columnar growth habit in youth and grow rapidly for a Viburnum, becoming arching with age to form a loose and somewhat open canopy
  • leaves are elliptical, serrated, shiny, medium- to dark green, and have characteristic warty-margined winged petioles
  • Viburnum lentago (Nannyberry Viburnum) and Viburnum prunifolium (Blackhaw Viburnum) are similar and can be easily confused, but have the following differences:
    • Nannyberry Viburnum has warty-margined wide petioles, with larger leaves that are serrated and become significantly infected with powdery mildew, and yield average to poor mixed fall color, while its growth habit is more upright, vigorous, and less twiggy, and plump Winter floral buds occur on elongated "stalks" with a long, acuminate tip that resembles a duck's bill
    • Blackhaw Viburnum has smooth-margined wide petioles, with nearly entire leaves that are less susceptible to powdery mildew, and have good to excellent fall color, with the emergent stems having a pair of miniature blue-green basal auricles that abscise by late Spring, with a growth habit that is more rounded and very densely twiggy with age, and plump Winter floral buds that have a very short "stalk" and short acute tip

• Function
  • informal hedge when placed in a row, but more often found as a utilitarian (deciduous screen in front of utility boxes), border, entranceway, foundation, woodland edge, or naturalizing shrub
  • small ornamental tree when limbed up and maintained in non-suckering form, found at entranceways, large raised planters, large foundations, borders, or as a lawn specimen

• Texture
  • medium texture in foliage and when bare
  • average to thick density in foliage, and open to average density when bare, being less dense in youth

• Assets
  • showy large inflorescences in Spring
  • can be limbed up into treeform status
  • fruits attract wildlife in Autumn
  • rapid growth rate for a Viburnum
  • cold hardiness
  • urban tolerant

• Liabilities
  • powdery mildew is a cosmetic foliage problem by late Summer if sited in poor air circulation areas or semi-shady areas
  • gets leggy as a shrub with age
  • abundant suckering with age, forming a large thicket or colony (may be considered an asset in naturalized situations)
  • may get much larger and broader than expected with age

• Habitat
  • zones 2 to 8
  • native to Eastern North America

• Alternates
  • large shrubs with showy inflorescences in mid-Spring (Rhododendron catawbiense, Spiraea x vanhouttei, Syringa vulgaris, etc.)
  • shrubs that can be limbed up (or grafted onto standards) to become specimen small trees (Cornus racemosa, Forsythia x intermedia, Hibiscus syriacus, Hydrangea paniculata 'Pee Gee', Syringa meyeri, Viburnum prunifolium, Viburnum rufidulum, etc.)
  • utilitarian or vertical shrubs (Juniperus chinensis 'Spartan', Juniperus scopulorum 'Wichita Blue', Rhamnus frangula 'Columnaris', Thuja occidentalis 'Smaragd', Viburnum x rhytidophylloides 'Willowwood', etc.)
  • companion woody plants that attract wildlife throughout Autumn and Winter with their fruits that are fleshy (Aronia, Crataegus, Lonicera maackii, Lonicera tatarica, Malus, Pyracantha coccinea, Viburnum prunifolium, etc.) or dry (Carpinus, Carya, Corylus, Fagus, Quercus, etc.)

• Variants
  • the straight species is practically the only form available, primarily in shrubform but also in treeform

• Translation
  • Viburnum is the classical Latin name for Wayfaringtree Viburnum.
  • lentago translates as "flexible," perhaps referring to the young stems.

• Purpose
  • Nannyberry Viburnum is one of the best ornamental upright shrubs that is sometimes used as a utilitarian shrub, and can also be culturally propagated as a small ornamental tree.

• Summary
  • Viburnum lentago is an upright shrub or small tree noted for its elongated and valvate Winter floral buds, early May creamy-white large inflorescences, red to black bird-attracting berries in Autumn, and arching to naturalizing growth habit with age.