Several small cotoneasters have appeared in Medlar Wood over the years, the seeds, no doubt, occurring in droppings from the branches overhead. Last year one of the largest produced flowers and fruit and, using all the botanical resources I could, find it appears to be Cotoneaster franchetii, Franchet's cotoneaster. My plant shed its leaves quite rapidly in autumn and C. franchetii is said to be evergreen or semi-evergreen. The leaves also turned a quite vivid red. The indicates it could be var. sternianus introduced from Myanmar in 1919, a variety sometimes misnamed as C. wardii. It has been given an Award of Garden Merit (AGM) by the Royal Horticultural Society.
The summer fruits (below) and the flowers agreed closely with descriptions of C. franchetii.
The shrub's specific name commemorates the 19th century French botanist Adrien René Franchet. There appears to be no English equivalent for 'cotoneaster' which is from Latin meaning quince-like. I think Franchet's false-quince would be a nicer name, but I don't suppose it will catch on.
