Peking cotoneaster

Cotoneaster acutifolius, commonly known as Peking cotoneaster, is a deciduous shrub of the family Rosaceae, native to northern China, Mongolia and the eastern Himalaya, where it grows on slopes, in scrub and at forest margins between about 1400 and 3700 m elevation. The plant typically reaches 2–4 m in height, with arching, sparsely branched, slender stems that are densely villous when young and become glabrous and brownish-grey with age. The simple, alternate leaves are ovate to elliptic, 2.5–7 cm long, dull dark green and sparsely hairy above, paler and pubescent beneath, with an acute apex (giving the specific epithet) and entire margins; the foliage turns reddish-orange in autumn. The small, pinkish-white flowers, 5–7 mm across, are borne in short axillary cymes of two to five, each with five spreading petals and about twenty stamens. The fruit is a small, ellipsoid pome, 7–10 mm long, ripening glossy black in late summer and persisting into autumn. The species is commonly cultivated as a hedge plant in temperate gardens.