This European Snowball Viburnum is an old-fashioned plant that was used more in the early and mid-20th century than now in the Midwestern and Eastern USA. It was known in Europe since the 16th century. It still is offered by many cheap mail order nurseries and some conventional nurseries. It does bear a lot of 2 to 3 inch diameter rounded flower clusters of all sterile florets, so it never bears fruit and does not provide pollen and nectar to insects. It often is strongly bothered by aphids.

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This is an old-fashioned plant that was more popular in the early and middle 20th century than now, but it is still used occasionally, and the most in average yards of homeowners; sometimes by some professional landscapers. It gets confused with the Japanese Snowball Viburnum that has smaller white round flower clusters and very different dark, rough, simple leaves with deep veins. The leaves of the European Snowball Cranberrybush Viburnum are three-lobed and relatively thin in texture like the mother species of Viburnum opulus. The twigs are stout, smooth, and hairless. The large flower clusters are slightly fragrant, and the individual flowers are without pistils and stamens, being sterile and seedless and not useful for pollinators.

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