x Pyracomeles Vilmorinii Rehd. ex Guillaum (P. crenato-serrata X O. subrotunda). Half-evergreen low shrub with slender branches.; branches and leaves grayish pubescent at first, soon glabrous; leaves with the petiole 2.5-3.5 cm. long, pinnate below and pinnatisect toward the apex, leaflets or lobes 5-9, the upper decurrent, oval, obtuse or slightly mucronulate, usually crenate-serrulate at apex: flowers about 1 cm. across, in many-flowered glabrous or nearly glabrous corymbs: fruit 4 mm. across, coral-red, with 4-5 nutlets. Gardeners Chronicle 103:125. Originated 1922. Zone VII? -- A. Rehder, Manual of Cultivated Trees and Shrubs, 2nd edition, revised, 1986.NCGR received plant from Forest Farm Nursery, Williams, Oregon. Forest Farm received either from Woodlanders in South Carolina or Saratoga Horticulture in California. 'Small shrub with dainty leaves and clusters of small white flowers followed by showy coral-red fruits. Hardiness -10 to 0 F.' -- Forest Farm catalog, 2005.
Pyracomeles vilmorinii (Vilmorin's pyracomeles) is a worthy garden ornamental, although it can be devastated by fire blight in bad years. Originating in France in 1922 as a chance hybrid between Pyracantha crenato-serrata, one of the Chinese firethorns, and Osteomeles subrotunda, a poorly known but related genus with attractive, dissected foliage, Pyracomeles forms medium-sized, semi-evergreen shrubs of arching habit. In spring, expect profuse displays of white to off-white flowers. -- Newsletter of The JC Raulston Arboretum, Raleigh, North Carolina, 2003 (online).