PlantFiles: Tea Viburnum
Viburnum setigerum

I bought this plant from Weston Nurseries in Hopkinton, Massachusetts about fifteen years ago and planted it a few yards from a path leading to my front door. It has been a multi-seasonal success, beloved of winter robins. It is shaded by a nearby maple street tree, although it is on the southwest side of the house. Also, it is planted on a slope which gets the runoff of the roof. I seem to have blundered into just the right situation for it, and even though there is no obvious pollinator nearby (some have recommended planting two of them), this one does just fine at producing its red berries. It may be closely enough related to another viburnum in the yard (a highbush cranberry) to get the benefit of its pollen.

I read that it was called monk's tea, because Chinese monks brewed the leaves. I noticed that the leaves of a branch of this plant which I brought into my house quickly turned black and brittle, and would have easily crumbled and perhaps allowed an extraction under boiling water like regular tea. I didn't think to try it, and frankly am slightly wary of doing so, not knowing just what those monks were trying to achieve with the drink. Perhaps someone can enlighten me on the subject.

This is an open, informal shrub that produces an enormously showy berry display in the fall, even in deep shade.

The tea viburnum is a medium size, multistemmed, deciduous shrub with slightly drooping branches that reaches a height of 8'-12' with a spread of 5'-8', whose leaves were once used for making tea. Flat topped clusters of showy white flowers 1"-2" in diameter cover the plant in late May. The fruit mature to a reddish-orange to orange color in profusion in late October making this the showiest of the fruiting viburnum. Fall color is an unreliable red.

The tea viburnum prefers well drained, mildly acidic soil in full sun to partial shade and flowers on new wood. It is useful in the shrub border, as a screen, in mass plantings, and is valuable for its flowers and fruit.