# Anyone know what shrub this is? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 27, 2003, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665 "2003-06-27T00:32:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665/1 "2003-06-27T00:32:34Z")
So, what with all the rain we’ve had up here in the NE, all kinds of things are popping out of the ground. One is something I haven’t been able to Id, even though it’s quite attractive: a shrub, with alternate leaves with a pattern in the veins like a dogwood, where they curve towards the point. They’re alternate, simple, and elliptical. I thought at first this was an alternate leaf or swamp (or pagoda) dogwood, but while walking the dog I noticed that some of these are growing nearby and that the fruit is red, whereas the fruit of the swamp dogwood is blue, according to the sites I’ve searched for info. Also, the flowers grow more like those of a lily-of-the-valley in style, drooping rather than up and flat like those of a dogwood. The flowers are very small, and white. The bark is reddish and speckled, kind of like the twigs of the chokecherry/plum family, from the pictures I’ve seen online. Problem with saying it’s a chokecherry is that all the sites say that the flowers are one to three inches large, far too large for the flowers of this bush. Ideas, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665/2 "2003-06-27T00:34:45Z")
How about a picture? ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665/3 "2003-06-27T00:46:24Z")
Hmm. I can’t download pix here, I don’t maintain a web site, and I’m not revealing my email. Kinda stuck on that one. Just think of something with dogwood leaves, lily of the valley flowers, and small, red fruit. I’ve searched all over the Web and can’t find any shrub that matches all three characteristerics, even though it’s very common in the undeveloped places in my neighborhood, as I found out tonight by just looking around. No one grows it deliberately, far as I can tell, which is kinda weird, as it is quite attractive. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665/4 "2003-06-27T00:58:02Z")
**Pantom** you can get free image hosting space at [Village Photos](http://www.villagephotos.com). ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665/5 "2003-06-27T01:11:24Z")
Wow. I didn’t know that existed. I’ll take the digital camera with me next time I walk the dog, upload and resurrect this thread when I do that. Thanks, **Q.E.D.** ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665/6 "2003-06-27T01:20:20Z")
What? This isn’t a Bush-bashing thread?🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kunoichi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4da419/32.png) [@kunoichi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kunoichi)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665/7 "2003-06-27T01:23:41Z")
Is [this](http://www.hort.net/gallery/view/eri/pieja) it? ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2003, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665/8 "2003-06-27T01:33:34Z")
**kunoichi** : Nope, sorry. I have one of those in front of my house, actually. The one I’m looking to ID is deciduous, whereas that bush is evergreen. Also, the leaves are rounder, that one’s is more pointed. **JM** : got a completely offbeat one in the works for the Fourth of July, so’s we don’t lack fireworks around that time, you understand. Assuming that the weather isn’t so hot that I decide to stay at the pool club all day, that is. Up until just a few days ago, that wasn’t even a remote possibility. What a weird summer this has been. ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665/9 "2003-06-28T23:14:28Z")
OK, here goes: [http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?selected=337754](http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?selected=337754) I followed **Q.E.D.** ‘s suggestion, and at this link you’ll find some pictures of the shrub in question. The first is a picture of the fruit, which is not yet ripe, but looks like it will be red when it is. This also shows the bark well: red and speckled above the fruit, gray and speckled below. The second shows strictly the leaves, which are elliptical and have a vein pattern much like that of a dogwood. The third is an attempt to get a picture of the flowers: the whitish clump of flowers at the center is it. You can’t see it in the pictures, but the leaves are alternate on the stem, that is, they grow in a pattern like this: -’-,-’-,- Any help would be appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665/10 "2003-06-28T23:41:39Z")
The fruit suggests _Ericaceae_ to me, but I do have reservations. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665/11 "2003-06-28T23:50:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by John Mace \* > \*\*What? This isn’t a Bush-bashing thread?🙂 \*\* Is that a euphemism for masturbation? ---
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-know-what-shrub-this-is/184665/12 "2003-07-06T19:23:50Z")
I think I’ve got a winner. I was browsing through my _ **Field Guide to North American Trees** _ and came up with Glossy Buckthorn which, despite the name, has no thorns. See the following site: [http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/er/invasive/factsheets/buckthorns.htm](http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/er/invasive/factsheets/buckthorns.htm) Appears it’s European and invasive. Doing a google on glossy buckthorn gets you a whole bunch of sites from different state governments on their invasiveness and how to control. Most disappointing. So should I pull the ones that popped up in my backyard out or not?