VIBURNUML. - VIBURNUM
Scientific Description:
Deciduous shrubs or small trees. Leaves simple, opposite. Flowers in many-flowered compound umbellate cymes, actinomorphic, 5-merous; corolla rotate to campanulate; ovary 1-celled; stigmas 3. Fruit a drupe. Several species are grown for ornament.
Reference:
Chamberlain DF (1972). Viburnum L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 4: 543.
Public Description:
Viburnum is a genus of shrubs or rarely small trees known as “viburnum” and native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are approximately 166 species in the world and 4 species (4 taxa) in Türkiye. Many species of viburnum have become popular as garden or landscape plants because of their showy flowers and berries, fragrance, and good autumn colour of some forms. Some popular species, hybrids, and cultivars and also included. In prehistory, the long, straight shoots of some viburnums were used for arrow-shafts, as those found with famuos Ötzi the Iceman (A man who lived 5,300 years ago, discovered in the Ötztal Alps on the border of Austria and Italy in 1991, is well preserved in natural conditions). The fruit of some species are edible and can be eaten either raw or for making jam, while other species are mildly toxic and can cause vomiting if eaten in quantity. The bark of some species is used in herbal medicine, as an antispasmodic and to treat asthma.
References:
Anonymous 1 (2015). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viburnum, Accesseddate: 29.12.2015.
Anonymous 2 (2015). https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/genus/viburnum/, Accesseddate: 29.12.2015.
Akson N (2012). Virburnum L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 19.
