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What is this dark-leaved shrub with lobed leaves and small seed heads?
The photograph shows a dense shrub with dark purple-red, lobed leaves and small remaining flower or seed heads. The combination of leaf shape and colour points clearly towards one plant.
Reader: Tomasgreen · · 1 min read
The plant is ninebark, Physocarpus opulifolius, and the dark leaf colour fits the cultivar ‘Diabolo’ well.
The clues are its dense shrub form, leaves with three to five lobes and coarse teeth, and the small grouped seed heads remaining after flowering. Dark purple foliage is also very typical of purple-leaved ninebarks.
It is an ornamental shrub for outdoor planting, rather than a weed or a perennial that dies right down each year. Ninebark usually has pale pink to pinkish-white flower clusters earlier in the season and is often grown for its foliage colour.
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