A neighbour offered me small plants from this shrub - about 7 feet tall. He has been in this home for 3 years and had not seen the berries turn red before. The leaves are slightly fuzzy, not waxy. He'd like to know what it is and if I'm to grow a plant, I would also. We are on the escarpment of the Niagara area of Southern Ontario. Can you help? I cannot find it on a google plant search. Thanks for any help.
Not sure , but maybe a Viburnum sp., possibly V. lantana, which has naturalized in the northeastern U.S. Welcome to the forums.
Thank you so much. I just Googled and found Wayfairing Tree "Mohican" Viburnum Lantana. I think this is it! I know Lantana but as a much smaller plant with clusters of multi-coloured flowers. This is a much larger tree-like variety. I wanted to be sure that it wasn't poisonous and don't believe the berries would be; however wouldn't eat them. Birds don't seem to be attracted to the plant so that's always a good indicator.
That's not reliable - there's lots of berries which are edible for birds, but poisonous for people. Deadly Nightshade Atropa belladonna springs to mind as an extreme example. Viburnum lantana fruit are not seriously toxic for people, but can cause stomach upsets; I'd definitely not recommend eating them.
Flo, Viburnum lantana and Lantana camara are two very different, unrelated plants. Lantana was named after Viburnum, but they are not closely related. And yes, do not eat the berries.
Thanks for the added insights and information. My friend was interested in growing the plant as well but wondered and worried about her dogs ingesting the berries. I'm not sure how smart dogs are when it comes to this question. Years ago our own dogs did silly things with potentially serious outcomes and we only hoped they learned by their mistakes. I think we worried more than them and taught them not to touch certain things.
