This Viburnum — with its showy, flat-topped or domed white flowers and opposite, toothed leaves typical of Viburnums — stands out from its cousins because in addition to being handsome, it is a well behaved, small (6-foot) shrub that plays well with others. Two of them have volunteered on our property in fortuitous understory locations and they are lovely to look at and display their purple-black fruit at a time when little else is available for the birds (mid-summer). Leaves are opposite, simple, and toothed with prominent venation, and they take on beautiful reds and purples in the fall. Downy Arrowwood thrives in partial shade and dry conditions and tolerates higher pH than many of our clay-bred native shrubs – a rewarding, care-free and under-utilized shrub native to piedmont NC.
