Please help identify these zone 7 evergreen

[T Khuu]

This one do very well in the cold. No leaf damage whatsoever. Some kind of laurel, Portugal?

This one has very tropical looking leaf. Viburnum of some sort?

Thanks!

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

The second one appears to be Viburnum rhytidophyllum (Leatherleaf Viburnum).

[T Khuu]

Thanks! The shape of the leaf seems different. Viburnum rhytidophyllum leaf appear much narrower based on the image I’ve seen,  may be some kind of hybrid?

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Viburnum x rhytidophylloides is one. I think there is another as well.

[T Khuu]

Thanks! Any ideas what the first plant is?

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Maybe Photinia fraseri. I don’t ever see it where I am, but saw it in Portland Oregon. Not sure if that it it, but something made me think of it.

[Leslie B Wagle]

I thought of Photinia too. Pretty common in N.C. but you’d have to look for bronzy new growth for an additional clue.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Does anyone else get plant names pop in their head from subconscious memories of plant studies from distant past? I find plant names pop into my mind on sight of a plant with zero recollection of the ID characteristics and they are usually right. I have to give props to those old school teaching techniques that my professors used.

I have three plants into a county extension service for ID. I have no conscious understanding of what they are, but subconsciously I believe that one is Elderberry, another is Viburnum cassinoides, and the last is Coastal Basswood. I recall nothing about ID’ing any of them, but the names pop into my head just looking at them. I’ll let you know when I get back the results.

[Leslie B Wagle]

Elderberry is big shrub with compound leaf….& big flat white flower clusters and later small purple berries. Main characteristic we learned from husband buying some (to hopefully make wine) is you can’t count on it to grow in a particular spot unless it just wants to, Found mostly in the wild along stream banks.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Yes, but in February in Massachusetts there are no leaves, no flowers, and no berries. I had the good fortune of having my first plant ID class in Maine in winter (Unity College). We had to cut twigs from the plants that our professor was introducing to us and key them out. It was all about buds, leaf scars, lenticels, piths, smells, stipule scars, …. Then we had to draw them in tests … still in winter condition. They burned these things so deeply into our brains that you see them and the name pops into your head like magic.

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