Flower Notes:
White (White flowers form flat-topped cymes in May)
Foliage Notes:
Green (Leafs out early in the spring; dark green summer foliage); Red (Reddish-purple coloration in fall)
Fruit Notes:
Red (Red berries that turn black in late summer)
Soil Notes:
Prefers moist, well-drained soils
Diagnostic Characteristics:
'Summer Snowflake' leaves, flowers, and fruits are all smaller than the species type. Leaves opposite, simple, half as wide, ovate, coarsely serrate, pubescent underneath, with impressed veins. Buds are naked. Young stems are tomentose. Produces both sterile and fertile flowers (and therefore fruits are produced) in flat-topped cymes (Viburnum plicatum f. plicatum has snowball-shaped cymes of all sterile flowers).