Side by side
Guelder rose or Japanese snowball? How to tell them apart
Viburnum opulus · Viburnum plicatum
How to tell them apart – guelder rose: lobed leaves and glossy red berries; Japanese snowball: broad shrub with horizontal, tiered branches that are covered on top with white flower heads in May.
Photo: Original uploader was Wouter Hagens at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Guelder rose Viburnum opulus
How do you recognise them?
- Guelder rose
- Shrub with three-lobed, maple-like leaves, flat white flower heads and glossy red berries.
- Compared with Japanese snowball: lobed leaves and glossy red berries.
- Japanese snowball
- Broad shrub with horizontal, tiered branches that are covered on top with white flower heads in May.
| Guelder rose | Japanese snowball | |
|---|---|---|
| Leaves | Opposite, 3–5-lobed, coarsely toothed, 5–10 cm; small glands on the leaf stalk. Red autumn colour. | Opposite, 5–10 cm, oval, toothed, with deeply impressed, parallel side veins; wine-red autumn colour. |
| Flowering | Flat heads of small fertile flowers, ringed by large white outer flowers (May–June) (May–June). | In the most widely planted forms, flat heads ringed with large white sterile florets, in May–June, in two rows along the top of the branches; in the ‘snowball form’, rounded heads of sterile flowers only (May–June). |
| Fruit | Glossy red, translucent berries in clusters; poisonous raw. | Small berries that turn from red to black, in summer. |
| Bark | Greyish-brown and smooth. | Greyish-brown, horizontally spreading branches. |
| Shape and height | Shrub, 2–4 m | Shrub, 2–3 m |
| Site | Sun or partial shade, any garden soil, moist to wet | Sun or partial shade, any garden soil, normal |
| Native to Belgium | Yes | No, planted |
| Good for bees, butterflies and birds | Yes, for bees and birds | – |
| Poisonous to people and pets | Not known to be poisonous | Not known to be poisonous |
| Pruning months | June–July | June–July |
What does it mean for your garden?
- Guelder rose is native: it feeds more insects and birds than a non-native species. If in doubt, choose this one.
Read on
- Plant profile: Guelder rose
- Plant profile: Japanese snowball
- Guelder rose: when and how to prune
- Japanese snowball: when and how to prune
- Identification key
Also looks like
- Laurustinus or guelder rose
- Ninebark or guelder rose
- Guelder rose or field maple
- Guelder rose or red-berried elder
- Guelder rose or wayfaring-tree
- Japanese snowball or wayfaring-tree
Identify by feature
This comparison is compiled from the Bladwijzer species pages.