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Cotoneaster discolor

(Cotoneaster)

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Cotoneaster

Description

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Family Rosaceae

Trees , shrubs , or herbs, deciduous or evergreen . Stems erect , scandent , arching , prostrate , or creeping , armed or unarmed . Buds usually with several exposed scales , sometimes with only 2. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, simple or compound ; stipules paired , free or adnate to petiole , rarely absent, persistent or deciduous; petiole usually 2-glandular apically; leaf blade often serrate at margin , rarely entire. Inflorescences various, from single flowers to umbellate , corymbose , racemose or cymose-paniculate. Flowers usually actinomorphic , bisexual , rarely unisexual and then plants dioecious. Hypanthium (formed from basal parts of sepals, petals, and stamens) free from or adnate to ovary, short or elongate . Sepals usually 5, rarely fewer or more, imbricate; epicalyx segments sometimes also present. Petals as many as sepals, inserted below margin of disk, free, imbricate, sometimes absent. Disk lining hypanthium, usually entire, rarely lobed . Stamens usually numerous , rarely few, always in a complete ring at margin of or above disk; filaments usually free, very rarely connate ; anthers small, didymous , rarely elongate, 2-locular. Carpels 1 to many, free, or ± connate and then adnate to inner surface of cupular receptacle; ovary inferior, semi-inferior, or superior; ovules usually 2 in each carpel, rarely 1 or several, anatropous , superposed . Styles as many as carpels, terminal , lateral , or basal, free or sometimes connate. Fruit a follicle, pome, achene, or drupe, rarely a capsule, naked or enclosed in persistent hypanthium and sometimes also by sepals. Seeds erect or pendulous, sometimes winged , usually exalbuminous , very rarely with thin endosperm; cotyledons mostly fleshy and convex abaxially, rarely folded or convolute.

Between 95 and 125 genera and 2825-3500 species: cosmopolitan , mostly in N temperate zone; 55 genera (two endemic) and 950 species (546 endemic) in China.

Many plants of this family are of economic importance and contribute to people s livelihoods. The Rosaceae contain a great number of fruit trees of temperate regions . The fruits contain vitamins, acids, and sugars and can be used both raw and for making preserves, jam, jelly, candy, various drinks, wine, vinegar, etc. The dried fruits of the genera

Amygdalus and Armeniaca are of high commercial value. Some plants in the genus Rosa containing essential oils or with a high vitamin content are used in industry . Rosaceae wood is used for making various articles, stems and roots are used for making tannin extract, and young leaves are used as a substitute for tea. Numerous species are used for medical purposes or are cultivated as ornamentals .

The Rosaceae are very well represented in China, with great economic and scientific importance. The Co-chairs of the Editorial Committee (Wu and Raven) here note that the patterns of relationship are complex and the group is taxonomically difficult. [1]

Genus Cotoneaster

Shrubs , rarely small trees , erect , decumbent , or prostrate , deciduous, semievergreen, or evergreen . Branchlets mostly terete , rarely slightly angulate , unarmed . Winter buds small; scales several, imbricate, exposed. Leaves alternate, simple , shortly petiolate ; stipules caducous , usually subulate , small; margin of leaf blade entire, venation camptodromous . Inflorescences terminal or axillary , cymose or corymbose , sometimes flowers several fascicled or solitary. Hypanthium turbinate or campanulate , rarely cylindric , adnate to ovary. Sepals 5, persistent , short. Petals 5, erect or spreading , imbricate in bud, white, pink, or red. Stamens 10-20(-22), inserted in mouth of hypanthium. Ovary inferior or semi-inferior, 2-5-loculed; carpels 2-5, connate abaxially, free adaxially; ovules 2 per carpel, erect; styles 2-5, free; stigmas dilated . Fruit a drupe-like pome, red, brownish red, or orange to black, with persistent, incurved , fleshy sepals, containing pyrenes; pyrenes (1 or) 2-5, bony, 1-seeded; seeds compressed ; cotyledons plano-convex .

About 90 species in the broad sense: widespread in temperate N Africa, Asia (except Japan), Central America (Mexico), and Europe, most abundant in SW China; 59 species (37 endemic) in China.

The shrubs are widely planted as ornamentals for their attractive fruits and flowers, and as borders , hedges , and ground cover. Further studies are necessary to clarify a taxonomy complicated by hybridization and apomixis.[2]

Physical Description

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 36-48" tall.

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : Pojark. Publication : Bot. Mater. Gerb. Bot. Inst. Komarova Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R. 16: 116 1954

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 2009

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Cotoneaster

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 56 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

C. acutifolius (Peking Cotoneaster) · C. adpressus (Creeping Cotoneaster) · C. adpressus var. praecox (Creeping Cotoneaster) · C. adpressus 'Little Gem' (Little Gem Cotoneaster) · C. amoenus (Cotoneaster) · C. apiculatus (Cranberry Cotoneaster) · C. bullatus (Cotoneaster) · C. cochleatus (Cotoneaster) · C. congestus (Pyrenees Cotoneaster) · C. conspicuus (Necklace Cotoneaster) · C. dammeri (Bearberry Cotoneaster) · C. dammeri 'Eichholz' (Bearberry Cotoneaster) · C. dammeri 'Mooncreeper' (Bearberry Cotoneaster) · C. dammeri 'Skogholm' (Bearberry Cotoneaster) · C. dammeri 'Streibs Findling' (Bearberry Cotoneaster) · C. dielsianus (Cotoneaster) · C. discolor (Cotoneaster) · C. divaricatus (Spreading Cotoneaster) · C. franchetii (Franchet Cotoneaster) · C. frigidus (Himalayan Tree Cotoneaster) · C. glabratus (Cotoneaster) · C. glaucophyllus (Bright Bead Cotoneaster) · C. granatensis (Durillo) · C. harrysmithii (Harrysmith Cotoneaster) · C. henryanus (Henrys Cotoneaster) · C. horizontalis (Cotoneaster) · C. horizontalis var. perpusillus (Prostrate Rock Cotoneaster) · C. horizontalis 'Variegatus' (Cotoneaster) · C. hupehensis (Hupeh Cotoneaster) · C. hylmoei (Cotoneaster) · C. integerrimus (Cotoneaster) · C. integrifolius (Small-Leaf Cotoneaster) · C. lacteus (Milkflower Cotoneaster) · C. lucidus (Hedge Cotoneaster) · C. microphyllus (Chinese Rockspray) · C. microphyllus 'Cooperi' (Chinese Rockspray) · C. multiflora (Cotoneaster) · C. multiflorus (Many-Flowered Cotoneaster) · C. nanshan (Creeping Cotoneaster) · C. niger (Dark-Seed Cotoneaster) · C. pannosus (Cotoneaster) · C. radicans (Bearberry Cotoneaster) · C. salicifolius (Cotoneaster) · C. salicifolius 'Repens' (Spreading Willowleaf Cotoneaster) · C. salicifolius 'Scarlet Leader' (Willow-Leaf Cotoneaster) · C. salicifolus (Willowleaf Cotoneaster) · C. serotinus (Cotoneaster) · C. simonsii (Himalayan Cotoneaster) · C. splendens (Splendid Cotoneaster) · C. sternianus (Cotoneaster) · C. tomentosus (Hairy Cotoneaster) · C. wilsonii (Cotoneaster) · C. x waterei 'John Waterer' (Cotoneaster) · C. 'Cornubia' (Cotoneaster) · C. 'Hybridus Pendulus' (Weeping Cotoneaster) · C. 'Rothschildianus' (Cotoneaster)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Cuizhi Gu, Chaoluan Li, Lingdi Lu, Shunyuan Jiang, Crinan Alexander, Bruce Bartholomew, Anthony R. Brach, David E. Boufford, Hiroshi Ikeda, Hideaki Ohba, Kenneth R. Robertson & Steven A. Spongberg "Rosaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 9 Page 46. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Lu Ling-ti, Anthony R. Brach "Cotoneaster". in Flora of China Vol. 9 Page 85. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-07-21