Late winter / early flowering shrub for ID

[mark smyth]

This thin growing shrub is in full flower right now in a friends garden. Does anyone know what it is? I forgot to check if it is scented. It's under 2m high.

[Robin Callens]

Mark,

This early flowering shrub is Oemleria cerasiformis.

Robin

[Maggi Young]

Yet another shrub I do not know!   
Wikipedia tells me:" Oemleria cerasiformis, also known as the Osoberry and Indian Plum, is the sole species in genus Oemleria. It is a shrub native to the Pacific coast and ranges of North America, from British Columbia, Canada to Santa Barbara County, California, U.S.A. It is among the first plants to leaf out and flowers early in the spring. It reaches a height of 1.5–5 m and has lance-shaped leaves 5–12 cm long. Native Americans ate them, made tea of the bark, and chewed its twigs to use as a mild anesthetic and aphrodisiac.
Leaf Alternate, simple, deciduous; generally elliptical or oblong, 2 to 5 inches long, light green and smooth above and paler below; margins are entire to wavy; fresh foliage tastes like cucumber. Among the first plant to leaf-out in the spring.
Flower Dioecious; whitish-green, inconspicuous, appearing in April to May.
Fruit Ovoid drupes up to 1/2 inch long, orange or yellow when young but blue-black when mature; borne on a red stem.
Twig Slender, green turning to reddish brown, pith chambered, conspicuous orange lenticles.
Bark Smooth, reddish brown to dark gray.
Form An erect, loosely branched shrub reaching 15 feet."

[mark smyth]

WOW thanks. She will be happy but if it will reach 15 feet it needs to be moved from under the tree where it grows

[Rodger Whitlock]

It grows natively along my driveway! It's most redeeming virtue is that it's among the earliest shrubs to leaf out and flower: a true harbinger of spring.

While I'm sure it's a wonderfully exotic species to those living far away, truthfully it's a very nondescript shrub. I wouldn't give it garden room unless you are desperate for shrubs to fill up blank spots.

[Ed Alverson]

Another feature of Oemleria cerasiformis is that birds love the fruits.  Definitely an asset for the garden within its native range, but perhaps not in areas where it is not native.  I grew a number of plants from seed and planted them out about a dozen years ago, and now I have seedlings coming up all over my yard.  I don't consider that a problem here, where they are native, but I could see Oemleria becoming invasive in areas with similar climates outside its native range.

Fortunately for the gardener, Oemleria is dioecious, meaning that plants are either all male or all female.  Mark's photo shows a male plant, and males typically have flowers that are a bit showier.  So one could certainly grow a selected male form in Britain and Europe, for example, without providing it the opportunity to escape.  In fact, just outside my office window there is a very nice male form, that flowers its head off every spring.

Ed

[gote]

It grows natively along my driveway! It's most redeeming virtue is that it's among the earliest shrubs to leaf out and flower: a true harbinger of spring.

While I'm sure it's a wonderfully exotic species to those living far away, truthfully it's a very nondescript shrub. I wouldn't give it garden room unless you are desperate for shrubs to fill up blank spots.

I am prepared to stand a nondescript shrub if it is very very early. It all depends upon how much space one has. Most of the so-called winter flowering shrubs die in my place. Jasminum nudiflorum just died on me

Göte 

[Paddy Tobin]

Gote,

I grow it here and like to have it for the fact that it flowers so early; nothing spectacular but nice to have at a lean time of the year.

Paddy

[gote]

Paddy,
I assume your climate is much benigner than min in the winter but I will start looking for it.
The largest Swedish nursery did not have it.
Göte

[Paddy Tobin]

Gote,

Unfortunately, I cannot offer seed as I have never had berries. I  must have the male strain.
My own plant came from seed received from the USA.
Paddy