A modern reference to temperate woody plants, including updated content from this site and much new material, can be found at Trees and Shrubs Online.

Cotoneaster dammeri Schneid.

Modern name

Cotoneaster dammeri C.K.Schneid.

A prostrate, evergreen shrub, with slender creeping stems keeping close to the ground; young wood downy. Leaves obovate or oval, 34 to 114 in. long, 14 to 58 in. wide; margins incurved, apex usually rounded, downy on the lower surface when young, ultimately quite glabrous on both sides; stalk 18 to 14 in. long; veins in four to six pairs. Flowers solitary, occasionally in pairs, on downy stalks 14 in. long, pure white, 13 to 12 in. diameter; calyx downy, with broad triangular lobes. Fruit coral-red, globose or rather top-shaped, 14 in. wide with usually five nutlets.

Native of Central China; found by Henry near Ichang, and introduced in 1900 by Wilson from W. Hupeh, where it occurs at 5,000 to 7,000 ft altitude. It is quite hardy, and is very distinct among cotoneasters for its perfectly prostrate habit. Its fruits are brightly coloured, and the plant has proved useful as an evergreen carpet-shrub, also for covering sunny slopes, as it is very vigorous. It occurs wild on heaths and rocky ground.

cv. ‘Major’. – A more vigorous form with leaves 1 to 135 in. long. according to h. j. grootendorst (dendroflora, vol. 3, p. 21) it is often found under the erroneous name c. dammeri ‘radicans’.

var. radicans Schneid. – Leaves longer-stalked than in the type (petioles to about 14 in. long) and usually obovate; flowers on longer pedicels (to 35 in. long). Some plants grown under this name are typical C. dammeri; others are C. d. ‘Major’ (see above).

C. ‘Skogholm’. – A vigorous form with prostrate or serpentine branches making mats up to about 112 ft high. It is not free-fruiting, but makes a useful evergreen ground-cover. It is a seedling (possibly hybrid) of C. dammeri, raised in Sweden and put into commerce around 1950.



From the Supplement (Vol. V)

Two recent selections from this species are ‘Streibs Findling’, raised in Germany, which is prostrate, with very small, dark green leaves; and ‘Coral Beauty’, less ground-hugging than C. dammeri in its usual state, with coral-red fruits.

Genus

Cotoneaster

Other species in the genus