blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium)
Adoxacedae, the moschatel family*
(Caprifoliaceae in older manuals)
How to recognize blackhaw. Blackhaw is an opposite-leaved shrub with leaves that are simple and have minutely serrate margins.
Blackhaw is an opposite-leaved shrub.
The flowers of nannyberry are individually small, radially symmetrical, with fused petals, and are arranged in flat-topped clusters called “compound cymes.”
Blkackhaw in flower in early May.
In the winter. Blackhaw twigs have valvate (meeting at the edges) bud scales, and an opposite arrangement.
Blackhaw twigs: left shows a flower bud, while the right is simply a branch bud at the tip.
Where to find blackhaw. E. Lucy Braun, in The Woody Plants of Ohio (1961, 1989; The Ohio State University Press) tell us that this species is “More extensive in range than any of our other species.”