Native Plant of the Week: Blackhaw

Family: Adoxaceae

Name: Viburnum prunifolium - Blackhaw

Bloom Time: April - May

Flower: White

Fruit: September - October

Fruit Color: Bluish-black

Soil Condition: Dry to Moist, Well Drained

Light: Sun to Partial Shade

Height: 12-15' tall by 6-15' wide

Native Range: Eastern North America including Long Island

Zone: 3 - 9

Photos: Flower (Suzanne Caldwell, CC BY-NC 4.0), Unripe fruits (Vojtech Zavadil, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Blackhaw is an easy-to-grow, three-season shrub with fragrant white flowers in the spring and pink, maturing to black, fruit in the fall and winter. Fall foliage is a lovely purplish color. Songbirds, as well as people, enjoy the fruits. Just like other viburnums, it will set fruit better with more than one shrub for pollination.

Maintenance: Not necessary but may be sheared as a hedge or pruned into tree form.

Benefits: Host plant to the spring and summer azure butterflies, black walnut tolerant, deer resistant

Fun Facts: The bark, berries, and leaves are used by many indigenous people for a multitude of ailments.

Companion Plants: Phlox stolonifera - Creeping Phlox, Packera aurea - Golden Ragwort, Polystichum acrostichoides - Christmas Fern

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References:

1. https://newyork.plantatlas.usf.edu/Results.aspx

2. https://www.pullupyourplants.com/archive/black-haw

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