Photo: Superior National Forest, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Downy Arrowwood

Viburnum rafinesqueanum

Also called Missouri viburnum, Rafinesque viburnum, downy-leaved arrowwood, Viburnum rafinesquianum, Viburnum affine.

A small arrowwood for dry, shady woods, with flat white flower clusters in late spring, dark fruit for birds and purplish red fall leaves.

Wildlife valueDrought tolerantTolerates shadeShowy flowersFall color

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 3–10 ft
USDA zones: 3–8
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Dry uplands, rocky ground, the forest understory, old fields and edges
Native range: 29 states, north and west to North Dakota and south to Georgia
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Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin
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Downy arrowwood is a viburnum of dry, rocky woods and woodland edges from Vermont and Quebec west to Manitoba, and south to Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas. It is a smaller, finer shrub than our arrowwood viburnum. Its leaves are softly hairy beneath on shorter stalks, and a pair of threadlike flaps sits at the base of each leaf stalk. Native Americans made arrow shafts from its straight stems. It is common in the Midwest and rare at the edges of its range. Massachusetts lists it as endangered, Kentucky as threatened and Tennessee as a species of special concern. Set it under oaks on a dry, rocky slope or along a shaded woodland edge, where birds take the fruit.

Size, growth and what to expect

Downy arrowwood grows slowly, and our growth estimator models it at the slow rate, about a foot a year. It makes a loose shrub of many straight stems, 3 to 10 feet tall and often 5 to 6 feet tall and as wide. In the open it can form dense thickets.

Flat to slightly domed clusters of creamy white flowers, 1.5 to 3 inches across, open from May into July, and they smell faintly unpleasant. The fruit ripens from July into October, an egg-shaped, somewhat flattened drupe a quarter to half an inch long and nearly black. Songbirds, grouse, wild turkeys and squirrels eat it. The leaves turn purplish red in fall.

It grows wild from Quebec and western Vermont west to Manitoba and North Dakota, and south to Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas. Its home is dry, rocky woods, bluffs and slopes, old fields and woodland edges. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Alabama, Delaware, Massachusetts and Tennessee.

How to grow Downy Arrowwood

Downy arrowwood grows in part shade or shade, and in full sun if it gets extra water. It prefers a well-drained, dry to moist loam or sand, and it takes clay, rocky ground and alkaline soil. Once established it rides out heat and drought, but it will not stand flooding. Plant it 3 feet from a wall and set plants 5 feet apart. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch ring clear of the stems. Seed needs 12 to 17 months of warm, damp conditions and then 2 to 4 months of cold. Hold cleaned seed damp at room temperature for that time, then chill it in the refrigerator before sowing it half an inch deep. Sown outdoors in fall, most seed waits at least until the second spring.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. White-tailed deer browse the twigs and leaves, so cage young plants where deer are many. Prune right after flowering, since next year's flower buds form on this year's growth.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, and insects carry the pollen. It has no serious pest or disease problems. Its leaves feed the caterpillars of the spring azure butterfly.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (16)