Scientific Name : Viburnum odoratissimum Ker Gawl.
Common Name : Sweet Viburnum
Chinese Name : 珊瑚樹, 極香莢蒾, 早禾樹, 山豬肉
Family : CAPRIFOLIACEAE
Local distribution status : Native species
| Origins | Provinces in South China. It also has distribution in India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Japan and the Korean Peninsula. |
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| Meanings of name | The word "coral" in its Chinese name "Coral Tree (珊瑚樹)"refers to its red fruit. During its fruiting period, the Sweet Viburnum is full of fruits, which are crystal clear under the sun and look like coral beads. Sweet Viburnum belongs to the genus Viburnum. Since it releases a pleasant fragrance, it is also known as “Very Fragrant Viburnum (極香莢蒾)” in Chinese. The species epithet "odoratissimum" in its scientific name means "very aromatic". |
| Ecology | Sweet Viburnum is native to Hong Kong. It is a nectar plant, and also the host plant of the butterflies Albocaerulean (Udara albocaerulea (Moore, 1879)) and Chocolate Royal (Remelana jangala (Horsfield, 1829)). Its fruit is a food source for some fruit-eating animals as well. Its native habitats consist of stream banks in dense forests and valleys, the sunny side of open woodland and bushes on flat ground. |
| Application | The leaves of the Sweet Viburnum, after grinding into paste, can be applied externally to treat bruises, swellings and fractures in folk medicine. Its wood can be used as a raw material for fine woodworking. Apart from being a street tree, the Sweet Viburnum can also be used as a firebelt species. |
| Growing habit | Evergreen tree. |
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| Height | To 10 m. |
| Stems | Bark of trunk greyish brown, with raised tuberculate lenticels. |
| Leaves | Elliptic, oblong to obovate, leathery, opposite. Margin irregularly and shallowly undulate-serrate at the upper part, or subentire. Adaxially dark green and glossy, abaxially sometimes sparsely with dark-red small glands, often with tufted brown hairs aggregating at axils of veins. Lateral veins and midveins conspicuously raised abaxially. |
| Flowers | Flowers fragrant. Inflorescences terminal, pyramidal. Rotate corolla white, later turns yellowish white, sometimes reddish. Lobes ovate-orbicular, reflexed. |
| Fruits | Drupes ovoid to ovoid-ellipsoid, red when young, turning to black when mature. |
| Flowering period | March to April in Hong Kong. |
| Fruiting period | May to September in Hong Kong. |
Scientific name above is based on Hong Kong Herbarium website : https://www.herbarium.gov.hk/en/hk-plant-database/plant-detail/index.html?pType=species&oID=5256
Scientific names from other databases
― Flora of China : Viburnum odoratissimum Ker Gawler
― Plants of the World Online : Viburnum odoratissimum Ker Gawl.