Pale green and covered with rusty down at first, later becoming dark reddish brown, sometimes glaucous, smooth, tough, flexible, and produce an offensive odor when crushed or bruised. Grayish-brown and smooth at first, becoming rough and shallowly furrowed with irregular, scaly plates with a few warty bumps and becoming scaly with age It can tolerate both acid and alkaline soilsĩ m (30 ft.) tall with a trunk up to 25 cm (10 in) in diameter Grows best in rich, moist area with clay-loam soil. Rocky woodlands, mesic woodlands, low woodlands along streams, thickets, roadsides, and fence rows, borders and banks of streams and rivers, fens, sedge meadows, tamarack swamps, shrubby swamps, swamps, borders of the forest, fence corners, rocky hillsides, swamp borders, upland woods, hardwood forest edges, flood plains, lakeshores Nannyberry, Sweet Viburnum, Blackhaw, Wild Raisin, Sheepberry, Black Haw, Cowberry, Nannyberry Viburnum, Nanny Plum, Sweetberry and Tea PlantĮnglish: Nannyberry, sweet viburnum, Black haw, Sheepberry, Nannyberry Viburnum, viorne flexible, Birnenblttriger Schneeball, Schneeballįrench: Viorne a manchette, Viorne flexible, Alises, Alisier, Bourdaine, Viorne lentago, viorne luisante,ĭeciduous, multi stemmed shrub or small to medium sized deciduous tree It can also be found in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Colorado, and the Appalachian Mountains as far south as Kentucky and Virginia Northeastern and midwestern United States, and to southern Canada from New Brunswick west to southeastern Saskatchewan. The fruits are sweet and edible and are eaten by many species of birds and wildlife. It produces good seasonal displays of flowers, fruits, and fall leaf color. Nannyberry is a shade-tolerant, understory species useful in landscape plantings as shrub borders, taller barriers, hedges, and windbreaks. The plant is also known as “sheepberry” because its fruit smells like wet sheep wool when over ripe. Nanny goats apparently feed on the ripe berries (reportedly more so than billy goats), hence the common name. Specific epithet means flexible as the twigs are very tough and flexible.
Genus name comes from the Latin name of a species plant. Nannyberry, Sweet Viburnum, Blackhaw, Wild Raisin, Sheepberry, Black Haw, Cowberry, Nannyberry Viburnum, Nanny Plum, Sweetberry and Tea Plant are some of the popular common names of the plant. Although widespread in eastern North America, this plant is only known to exist in Missouri in low woods and wooded slopes in Schuyler County. It can also be found in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Colorado, and the Appalachian Mountains as far south as Kentucky and Virginia. The plant is native to northeastern and Midwestern United States and to southern Canada from New Brunswick west to southeastern Saskatchewan. Viburnum lentago scientifically known as nannyberry, sheepberry, or sweet viburnum, is a large deciduous shrub belonging to Caprifoliaceae (Honeysuckle family).