Cotoneaster acuminatus - Closed-Flower Cotoneaster

Closed-Flower Cotoneaster is a deciduous erect shrub, 2-3 m tall. Flowers are borme in cymes 1-2 cm, 1-3 flowered; rachis and stalks yellowish hairy, bracts lanceshaped or linear, 2-4 mm. Flower-stalks are 3-5 mm. Flowers 6-8 mm in diameter. The cup below the flower is bell-shaped. Sepals are triangular, 1.5-2.5 x 2-3 mm, tip pointed. Flowers do not open fully - petals are erect, pink or whitish, ovate to obovate, 3-4 mm and nearly as broad, hairless, base clawed, tip blunt or erose. Stamens are 20, shorter than petals. Branchlets are grayish brown to brownish, round, initially densely yellowish hairy, hairless when old. Leaf-stalks are 3–5 mm, hairy, stipules partly falling off at fruiting, lanceolate, 3-5 mm. Leaves are elliptic-ovate to ovate-lanceshaped, 2-6.5 x 2-3 cm, both surfaces hairy, more densely so below, base broadly wedge-shaped, tip long-pointed, rarely pointed. Fruit is a bright red berry, ellipsoid, 8-10 x 7-8 mm. Closed-Flower Cotoneaster is found in the Himalayas, from Kumaun to Bhutan, Tibet, W. China, ataltitudes of 2500-3700 m; Flowering: May-June.