There has been and is now some confusion in the nursery trade with this Hedge Cotoneaster. It is the Hedge Cotoneaster (C. lucidus) from western China that is widely sold in the upper Midwest from conventional nurseries, but they label it as the Peking Cotoneaster (C. acutifolius) from northern China and Mongolia. There is very little difference in that the former species or variety has shiny leaves with less hair on the leaves and flowers than the latter. Anyway, the Hedge Cotoneaster is a handsome, clean, neat shrub with excellent autumn colour of mostly orange with spots of yellow, red, and purple. In May it bears lots of small nice white flower clusters that are pollinated by bees. The black drupes are dry and don't taste good. I don't know if they are really eaten by birds much. I have not seen this species escape cultivation in the Chicago area.
I once saved the life of three Hedge (Peking) Cotoneasters used as an informal screen from the bacterial disease of Fire Blight Disease that attacks a number of members of the Rose (Apple) Family. I pruned about one foot or more below the dying blackened stems and it stopped the disease that would have been fatal. Check the Plant Database page of Peking Cotoneaster (C. acutifoilus) for more photos.

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