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Philadelphus sericanthus Koehne

Modern name

Philadelphus sericanthus Koehne

A shrub 6 to 12 ft high, shoots glabrous, becoming reddish brown the first year, ultimately peeling. Leaves ovate to oval-lanceolate, tapered to both ends, especially to the slender acuminate apex, coarsely toothed with up to eleven pairs, 112 to 4 in. long by 1 to 212 in. wide, sometimes entire, sparsely hairy or glabrous above with a few hairs at the back and tufts in the vein-axils. Flowers about 1 in. wide in racemes of up to eleven, not scented; petals pure white, rounded-oval to nearly orbicular; calyx and stalks densely covered with appressed, stiff, white hairs; style glabrous. Bot. Mag., t. 8941.

Native of Hupeh and Szechwan, China; discovered by Augustine Henry in 1888-9 and introduced to France in 1897, when M. de Vilmorin received seeds from the Abbé Farges. To Britain it was introduced by Wilson in 1900, when collecting for Messrs Veitch. It is quite hardy and flowers freely in June.


Genus

Philadelphus

Other species in the genus