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A friend of mine came back from a nearby mountain with this flower from a wild shrub that was very common in the area where he walked. The area where these are found is the west-Alps, around -1300- 1500 meters above sea-level.

here are the flowers here are the berries *After a while, I went back to take pictures myself and found flowers had turned into berries (some where already getting red) - see edit #2.

It is a very bee-attractive shrub, so he was considering planting some at his place where he raises bees.

Do you have any idea what this is? I'm sorry about the picture, which is of poor quality. I will try to add a better one if we go back to the area and see some more.

edit

I used this site and it lead me to my first guess that it was some kind of cherry tree: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-5mhe49

trail:

Simple - not lobed - linear - alternate - < 10 cm long - twigs shiny dark brown, and the leaf edged with small teeth / shiny dark brown twigssmall sharp teeth

result with (UK) identification site

... since its an UK site, mountain shrub are not there described ... still looking ...

edit 2:

So I went back to where my friend had spotted the thing, and found the bushes, scattered every now and then. Here is how it looks in the real (flowers are now gone unfortunately) - that's the thing in front of the pine tree: how it looks in the real And here is the biggest we found - about 2-3 meters long. how it looks in the real - biggest we found

Very similar cousin

It has a very similar cousin that grows in the very same location, but much bigger (maybe 4-5 meters), with white flowers, and that has some kind of white feather beneath the leaves: shrub's larger cousin

The bigger cousin is here compared with my mysterious shrub; it's the one on the right - very similar indeed: enter image description here

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  • Fuller pic, please. Also if that's two stems stacked, separate. Want to see if leaves are opposite or alternating. I'd wager it's an aster, probably an Adenostyle. Haven't seen one with leaves that shape though, so I'm curious.
    – Paul Nardini
    Jul 8, 2016 at 14:21
  • Yes, a picture of the plant itself would be very helpful. Could this be a Eupatorium?
    – Brenn
    Jul 11, 2016 at 14:19
  • @Brenn, No, I don't think so... I'm so sorry, I'll try to go back on that place my friend talked about. If I can't I'll remove this question for now.
    – J. Chomel
    Jul 11, 2016 at 16:48
  • I'm afraid it absolutely is not any kind of Prunus (cherry)... how tall was this plant,did it have a trunk like a tree then?
    – Bamboo
    Jul 14, 2016 at 9:47
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    Just looked up Prunus prostrata, not one I know, what a pretty thing that is... but you're right, its similar, but flowers./leaves aren't right
    – Bamboo
    Jul 14, 2016 at 11:42

1 Answer 1

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I think this is Sorbus chamaemespilus, an alpine plant. Also this is from rose family (Rosaceae), so it could be confused by some Prunus species (e.g. Prunus padus, also an alpine plant).

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  • This could indeed be the one! So weird leaves for a Sorbus it has.
    – J. Chomel
    Dec 9, 2016 at 13:46

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