Alternate name: Mapleleaf Arrowwood

Family: Caprifoliaceae, Honeysuckle view all from this family

Description A shrub with maple-like leaves and small, white flowers or uniform size in flat topped clusters.
Flowers: 1/4" (6 mm) wide; clusters 2-3" (5-7.5 cm) wide; corolla 5-lobed.
Leaves: 2-5" (5-12.5 cm) long, opposite, 3-lobed, maple-like, hairy, with minute black dots beneath.
Fruit: purplish-black, berry drupes.
Height: 3-6' (90-180 cm).
Flowering: May-August.

Habitat Shrub layer of moist, upland, hardwood forests.

Range Quebec south to New England and Florida; west to Tennessee, Michigan, and Minnesota.

Discussion The distinctive, purplish-pink autumn foliage makes this one of our handsomest shrubs. Another native Viburnum with 3-lobed leaves, Cranberry Viburnum (V. opulus var. americanum (V. trilobum)) has large, showy, white, sterile outer flowers in each cluster and in late summer and autumn bears red fruits suitable for jam. Few-flowered Cranberry Bush (V. edule), with red fruit and only slightly lobed leaves, occurs at high elevations in the Northeast, extending far north into Canada.