I've never seen these ones before. They're not rowan, holly, hawthorn, elderberry, heavenly bamboo, cotoneaster, bittersweet, and none of the other things I can think of with bunches of red berries should be growing anywhere near here. I don't claim comprehensive knowledge but I thought I knew all the berry-type things that grew around here and I don't know this one. Found it in Pacific Spirit, the section between Chancellor and University Blvd., on the Salish Trail near where it joins up with Sword Fern at the north end. Anyone know what it is? Bigger version, if needed.
Huh, really? There's a cotoneaster tree near me and it looks totally different, the berries are brighter and more numerous and less shiny with darker tips and the leaves are more leathery, like this. I didn't think it could be the same thing. I'll have to do some more reading, looks like. :P Thanks!
That's what I thought too, though I could easily confuse that with almost anything else you mentioned. But there are Cotoneaster with tiny leaves and some with leaves more than 10cm long. And fruits in yellow and black as well as red.
The local weed with this general appearance has been identified as Cotoneaster rehderi. It has also gone wild in Europe. http://alienplantsbelgium.be/content/cotoneaster-rehderi
There are hundreds of species in the genus, dozens of which have been noted as occurring spontaneously in Seattle - birds in this region spread them around, and these shrubs don't seem to mind our summer drought.
Reports of Cotoneaster bullatus (treated as C. bullatus var. bullatus by L. Lingdi and A. R. Brach 2003) from British Columbia (J. Pojar 1999) are here referred to C. rehderi. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242315142
