Hi, the house I moved into has this large "shrublike" plant that is growing in a strip between house and parking area, where it is growing is a area that was planted by previous owner but we are unsure if it's a planted plant or some type of weed Any help appreciated, some of it appears to be dying off or something so we wanted to find out so we could treat it or pull it whatever the case may be. My dad thinks it's a weed. It hasn't flowered that I've seen, I'm in Washington state. thanks for any help
I'm not sure it's that, but could be... I'm no expert at these things. I just looked at some photos though. Thanks for the reply
In this posting are some photos of Arbutus menziesii that I took at UBC Botanical Garden, where the tree was labelled. The leaves and bracts look pretty similar, though I wondered about the serrated leaf edges on your plant. I see, though, on the E-Flora BC Atlas page, that leaves are "...entire on mature older growth, fine-toothed on young shoots", so that could account for that difference. "Entire" means smooth, not serrated. I can't make any sense of the leaf arrangement on the two examples and whether they're the same or not.
Yep, agree, not Arbutus menziesii with those strongly serrated leaves - compare e.g. here. Fits better with Arbutus × andrachnoides 'Marina', a hybrid which does have serrated leaves and is popular in cultivation (pic here).
To muddy the waters, I'll add this one. Wild-collected Arbutus menziesii, juvenile foliage, from the Garden's Garry Oak Meadow and Woodland Garden.
Habit photo looks like the hybrid. It may have frozen to the ground and re-sprouted, as it is not particularly hardy.
Daniel, that does look alot more like it. Since it had so much fungus going on, I cleaned all the bad leaves and real low branches and ground underneath to give it a chance to recoup. It looks a bit bare but better now. Thank you all for your help :)
I looked at a definitely spontaneous native A. menziesii seedling of about the same height as shrub in question here on Camano Island and it had doubly toothed leaf margins.
'Marina' at a garden center here had same new leaf color. Way to tell about yours now would be to cut a representative growth and compare with those of A. menziesii and A. 'Marina' nearby. There will be plenty of wild A. menziesii around there, the garden variety - if not noticed in a local planting - will probably be present at a nursery in the area, maybe Christianson's for instance. Later the hybrid produces pink flowers during late summer-fall, in contrast to the white spring flowers of the native. And 'Marina' does not produce such rhododendron-like areas of older foliage, with large leaves grouped closely together near the ends. Come to think of it the hybrid doesn't really have the gray cast to the leaves, with such apparently whitish undersides either - that is something else that could be looked for immediately.
