Shiny cotoneaster

Cotoneaster lucidus, commonly known as shiny cotoneaster or hedge cotoneaster, is a deciduous shrub in the family Rosaceae native to the Lake Baikal region of south-central Siberia in Russia and adjacent parts of northern Mongolia, and widely cultivated and naturalised elsewhere in temperate regions. The shrub typically grows 1.5 to 3 metres tall with an erect, densely branched habit and slender, initially hairy young shoots that become smooth and dark brown to greyish with age. The simple alternate leaves are ovate to elliptic, 2 to 5 centimetres long, with an acute apex and a glossy dark green upper surface, paler and slightly hairy below; autumn foliage turns brilliant red to orange. Small pinkish-white flowers, 6 to 8 millimetres across, are borne in axillary corymbs of three to eight in late spring. Fruits are nearly globose pomes 7 to 10 millimetres across, ripening to glossy black and containing two to four stones. It often forms dense hedgerows and edges of woodland.