Am I correct in assuming that this is a cotoneaster? I have two very large cotoneasters here of a different variety and then two of these that I'm getting ready to prune to the ground..


TIA...

When I saw the thumbnail I thought of crepe myrtle.

I should have been more specific...full grown leaves are 1/4" and crape myrtle doesn't grow here...or I should say it does not do well here, so it's unlikely to have been planted here...these two little shrubs have been here a long time. Cotoneasters seem to be used a lot here and that's something I've never paid any attention to. Encountering new plants here is interesting..

I should also have been more specific. I don't think it's a crepe myrtle but from the thumbnail it sure fooled me!

lol, dave...I didn't think anyone could fool you on anything....

I think that these are the smallest leaves I've seen on anything..

I'm with Dave, that was what came to my mind when I saw the picture. I guess because that would be the most likely thing growing here. I am sorry, I have never seen a Cotoneaster.

It resembles my cotoneaster, Sherry. Have you seen it in bloom (very small white flowers) or with any berries?

The leaves look like one I bought two years ago, Cotoneaster congestum nanum, but it's now dead and 'was' a dwarf spreading plant which yours isn't. I searched the name which brought up an interesting article about water-wise plants, Cotoneaster pannosa is mentioned but that doesn't look correct.

Fig. 4. Soil moisture as a function of depth and irrigation regime at Irvine. Cotoneaster plants extracted water from at least a 3-ft depth in the non irrigated block (these shrubs suffered excessive leaf damage).

http://www.californiaagricultu...

Photos of C. congestum nanum to compare the leaves ..



There's a few Cotoneaster to compare on this site ..

http://www.sunnygardens.com/ga...

Cotoneaster microphyllus has very small leaves ..

Its very small, grayish leaves are woolly underneath. Use this horizontal spreader, whose secondary branches grow up, in rock gardens or cascading down banks. Rose red ornamental fruit.

http://www.sunnygardens.com/ga...

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

Thanks, Janet. I've been looking at images but find that it's difficult to get an exact match...I'll check those. There are a lot of cotoneasters and I've managed to ignore them through the years, so they're quite alien to me. The tiny leaf one is dark and 'coppery' colored and I see that there are either root suckers or seedlings that have been coming up around them. I'm trying to decide whether or not I like these things and will work with them or chop them out. There are two and through the years someone has tried to chop them into squares, so I've just cut them back to the ground to see if I will like them once they've regained a natural form. There are also two of the huge gray cotoneasters..the one to the side of the property I like as it blends into a 'wild' area. The one in the front I don't care for...mostly I suppose becaus of the way it's been trimmed. I would most likely take it out, but have read that it's really, really difficult to take out (should have done it when the backhoe was here)...and also I find it difficult to remove something that has such a large 'presence' in an otherwise mostly bare area.

This is the 'wild' one, the second pic is the one in the front of the property...

Tee, there are currently no berries on the cotoneasters...nor flowers. The mixed shrub hedge that I asked about previously has the two types of shrub, plus bramble, plus ivy, plus now a type of wild grape and I noticed just yesterday a small bloom and stem that I'd not seen before and am wondering it there's cotoneaster in ther also....lol...

edited to add the pic of the small bloom in the hedge...



Now that I've taken a second look at that bloom pic, I wouldn't think cotoneaster, but my first inclination would be enkianthus, though I've only a passing acquaintance wiith that shrub also.