Hollyberry cotoneaster

Cotoneaster bullatus, the hollyberry cotoneaster, is an arching deciduous shrub of the family Rosaceae growing to 3-4 m tall, native to woodland and shrub vegetation between 900 and 3200 m in Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Xizang in western China. The grey-barked, terete branches bear alternate, oblong-ovate leaves 35-70 mm long and 20-40 mm wide; their upper surfaces are deep glossy green with a characteristically wrinkled, blistered (bullate) texture between the impressed veins, while the lower surfaces are pale grey-green and finely hairy. In late spring and early summer, dense clusters of 12-30 small pinkish-white five-petalled flowers appear, each with about twenty stamens, followed by abundant globose bright red pomes 6-8 mm across that ripen in late summer and persist into winter. Introduced to cultivation in 1898, it has naturalised in parts of Europe and New Zealand.