Flower Notes:
White;pink (White panicles in late spring and early summer; pinkish and then brown panicles in the fall, persisting into the winter)
Foliage Notes:
Green (New growth is gray-green in the spring, becoming a deep green in the summer); Red-Violet (Handsome red to reddish-purple fall foliage)
Fruit Notes:
Brown (Capsule; not ornamentally important)
Soil Notes:
Requires moist, well-drained soil; a layer of mulch is advisable to keep the roots cool
Diagnostic Characteristics:
Leaves (5" long) are opposite, simple, and deeply lobed, resembling large red oak leaves with a white tomentose below. Large leaf scars are triangular. 3-4" long upright flower clusters (panicles) of sterile showy flowers (sepals) outside tiny fertile non-showy flowers emerge in early summer. In the fall, the flowers turn a purplish pink and then brown, persisting into the winter. Cinnamon brown bark on older stems peels and exfoliates.
