Silverleaf Cotoneaster

Shrubs semievergreen, to 2 m tall. Branchlets dark grayish brown or purplish brown, thin, initially densely white tomentose, glabrescent. Petiole 2–7 mm, tomentose; stipules caducous, linear, pubescent; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, elliptic, or ovate, 2–3(–4) × 0.8–1.5 cm, leathery, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 4–6 pairs, abaxially densely white tomentose, adaxially slightly pubescent or glabrous, base broadly cuneate, apex obtuse or acute. Corymbs 1–3 × 1.5–2.5 cm, to 10(–20)-flowered; rachis and pedicels densely tomentose; bracts caducous, linear, pubescent. Pedicel 2–3 mm. Flowers 7–8 mm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, abaxially densely tomentose. Sepals triangular, apex shortly acuminate or acute. Petals spreading, white, broadly ovate or suborbicular, 3–3.5 mm, base shortly clawed and puberulous adaxially, apex obtuse. Stamens 20, nearly as long as petals; anthers purplish red. Ovary pubescent apically; styles 2(or 3), free, ca. as long as stamens. Fruit dark red, globose or ovoid, 7–8 mm in diam., pyrenes often 2. Fl. Jun, fr. Oct–Nov. 2n = 34*, 68*.

Sichuan, Yunnan.

Thickets, rocky places, waste places in mountain regions, slopes; 1100--3200 m.