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Deutzia scabra Thunb.

Modern name

Deutzia scabra Thunb.

Synonyms

D. crenata Sieb. & Zucc.

A deciduous shrub up to 10 ft high; branches erect, covered with brown peeling bark; young shoots glabrous or slightly rough. Leaves ovate to ovate-lanceolate, the larger ones of the barren shoots rounded or heart-shaped at the base, slender-pointed, up to 4 in. long by nearly 2 in. wide; the smaller ones and those of the flowering twigs tapered at the base, all stellately scurfy on both sides, the marginal teeth are small and fine, standing upwards rather than outwards from the margin. Panicles erect, cylindrical, 3 to 6 in. long, terminating short leafy lateral twigs. Flowers pure white or tinged with pink outside, 12 to 34 in. long and wide; petals nearly erect, oblong, pointed; style about as long as the petals, calyx-lobes deciduous, covered with starlike scales; the lobes triangular; wings of stamens with two distinct shoulders below the anthers. Flowers in late June. Bot. Mag., t. 3838.

Native of Japan and China; introduced in 1822. This is undoubtedly the best and most reliable of deutzias in this country. It usually escapes damage by late frosts, and produces its showy erect panicles in great profusion. Strong branches will, in their second year, become transformed into pyramidal masses of bloom 2 ft long. The double-flowered and rosy forms are excellent shrubs.

cv. ‘Candidissima’. – Flowers double, pure white. Put into commerce by Froebel around 1867.

cv. ‘Flore Pleno’. – Flowers double, white, tinged with rosy purple on the outside. Introduced by Fortune in 1861 and exhibited by Standish’s nursery in 1863 as D. crenata flore pleno. Also known under such epithets as plena and rosea plena.

cv. ‘Pride of Rochester’. – Similar to the preceding, but the rosy tinge is paler. Raised in the USA by Ellwanger and Barry.

cv. ‘Punctata’. – This variety has single, pure white flowers, but the leaves are strikingly marbled with white and two or three shades of green. It is a rather pretty variegated shrub, but apt to revert to the ordinary green state.

cv. ‘Watereri’. – Flowers 1 in. across, single; petals rosy outside.

Although this species is perfectly distinct from D. sieboldiana (q.v. for the points of difference), they were confused by Thunberg, and it has long been a matter of controversy for which of the two his name D. scabra should be used. In Ohwi’s Flora of Japan (1965) the species described above is treated under the name D. crenata Sieb. & Zucc. (D. scabra Thunb., in part), and D. sieboldiana accepted as the true D. scabra Thunb.


Genus

Deutzia

Other species in the genus