Cotoneaster pannosus

Silverleaf cotoneaster, Silverleaf Cotoneaster

Family: Rosaceae · Type: shrub · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Silverleaf cotoneaster is a naturalized shrub found in coastal and interior regions of California, including the North Coast, Central Valley, southern California coast, and western Transverse Ranges in meadows, rocky slopes, open forests, and disturbed ground at elevations generally below 1,000 meters. Flowering from May to July, this shrub produces white flowers 8.5 to 10 millimeters wide with purple-anthered stamens. Growing as an arching evergreen shrub 15 to 400 centimeters tall, it has a distinctive branching habit. Its leaves are elliptic to slightly ovate, 15 to 32 millimeters long, with a dull blue-green upper surface and white-woolly undersides. The fruit is a bright red, obovoid to slightly spherical drupe 7 to 9 millimeters long, persistent from October to May.

Habitat: Meadows, rocky or brushy slopes, open forest, riparian zones, canyons, disturbed ground, thickets, mixed-evergreen forest

Bloom period: May-Jul, fruiting Oct--May

Elevation: generally < 1000 m

Bioregions: NCo, NCoRO, CaRF, n SNF, ScV, CW, SCo, WTR, SnGb, expected elsewhere

California counties: San Diego, Butte, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Ventura, Humboldt, Contra Costa, Alameda, Marin, Santa Cruz, Riverside, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Mendocino, Monterey, Sonoma, San Luis Obispo, Napa, Orange, Sacramento, Yolo

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.