Amur physocarpus

Family Rosaceae. Grows in the understory of mixed forests of the Far East, northern China and North Korea.

A shrub up to 3 m tall, with a broad, globular crown. Bark of old stems peels in longitudinal strips. Young shoots smooth, chestnut-colored. Leaves with a heart-shaped base, 3–5-lobed, up to 10 cm long, dark green above, grayish-woolly beneath from stellate hairs. Flowers white, up to 1.5 cm in diameter, gathered in corymb-like inflorescences of 10–15, flowering for about 20 days; pedicels and sepals woolly-felted. Fruits are strongly inflated follicles, reddening as they mature and giving the plant a decorative appearance.

Winter-hardy, shoots fully lignify. Used in group and solitary plantings, for underplanting woodland margins, and in hedges. In cultivation since 1854.