Shepherdia

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Shepherdia
SilverBuffaloberrySK-3.jpg
Shepherdia argentea
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Elaeagnaceae
Genus: Shepherdia
Nutt.
Species

See text

Synonyms
  • LepargyreaRaf.
  • LeptargyreiaSchltdl.

Shepherdia, commonly called buffaloberry [1] or bullberry, is a genus of small shrubs in the Elaeagnaceae family. The plants are native to northern and western North America. [2] They are non-legume nitrogen fixers.

Contents

Shepherdia is dioecious, with male and female flowers produced on separate plants. [3]

Species

The genus has three living species:

An additional extinct species is also placed in the genus:

Fruit

The berry is recognizable by being a dark shade of red, with little white dots on them. They are rough to the touch, and are found on both trees and shrubs.

Wildlife

The plants have rather bitter-tasting berries. The fruit are often eaten by bears, which by legend, prefer the berries to maintain fat stores during hibernation. [6]

Buffaloberries are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including Ectropis crepuscularia (recorded from S. canadensis) and Coleophora elaeagnisella .

As food

Buffaloberries are sour and can be made into jam, pie, jelly, syrup, soups, or prepared like cranberry sauce with sugar added. [6]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elaeagnaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

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<i>Shepherdia canadensis</i> North American species of buffaloberry

Shepherdia canadensis, commonly called Canada buffaloberry, russet buffaloberry, soopolallie, soapberry, or foamberry is one of a small number of shrubs of the genus Shepherdia that bears edible berries.

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<i>Pedicularis canadensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Pedicularis canadensis, commonly called Canadian lousewort or wood betony, is a flowering plant in the family Orobanchaceae. It is native to North America, where it is found in southeastern Canada, the eastern United States, and eastern Mexico. It has a wide-ranging natural habitat, being found in mesic to dry, forests, woodlands, and prairies.

<i>Berberis vulgaris</i> Species of shrub

Berberis vulgaris, also known as common barberry, European barberry or simply barberry, is a shrub in the genus Berberis native to the Old World. It produces edible but sharply acidic berries, which people in many countries eat as a tart and refreshing fruit.

<i>Solidago canadensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Solidago canadensis, known as Canada goldenrod or Canadian goldenrod, is an herbaceous perennial plant of the family Asteraceae. It is native to northeastern and north-central North America and often forms colonies of upright growing plants, with many small yellow flowers in a branching inflorescence held above the foliage. It is an invasive plant in other parts of the continent and several areas worldwide, including Europe and Asia. It is grown as an ornamental in flower gardens.

<i>Shepherdia argentea</i> Species of Shepherdia

Shepherdia argentea, commonly called silver buffaloberry, bull berry, or thorny buffaloberry, is a species of Shepherdia in the Oleaster family.

<i>Sambucus racemosa</i> Species of plant

Sambucus racemosa is a species of elderberry known by the common names red elderberry and red-berried elder.

<i>Rubus pubescens</i> Berry and plant

Rubus pubescens is a herbaceous perennial widespread across much of Canada and the northern United States, from Alaska to Newfoundland, south as far as Oregon, Colorado, and West Virginia.

<i>Symphoricarpos albus</i> Species of flowering plant

Symphoricarpos albus is a species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family known by the common name common snowberry. Native to North America, it is browsed by some animals and planted for ornamental and ecological purposes, but is poisonous to humans.

Leymus innovatus is a species of grass known as downy ryegrass, boreal wildrye, hairy wildrye, fuzzyspike wildrye, northern wildrye, and northwestern wildrye. It is native to northern North America from Alaska to eastern Canada and south to Colorado.

<i>Shepherdia rotundifolia</i> Species of shrub

Shepherdia rotundifolia, the roundleaf buffaloberry or silverleaf, is a 3-to-6-foot (1-to-2-meter) evergreen shrub in the oleaster family (Elaeagnaceae) that grows only in the Colorado Plateau (endemic) of the southwestern United States. The common name comes from western settlers using the cooked berries in a sauce for eating cooked buffalo meat.

Xylena cineritia, the gray swordgrass moth, is a species of cutworm or dart moth in the family Noctuidae. It is found in northern North America, from New Jersey to Newfoundland and from California to British Columbia.

References

  1. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Shepherdia". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  2. "Shepherdia Nutt". USDA PLANTS.
  3. Renner, Susanne S. (2014). "The relative and absolute frequencies of angiosperm sexual systems: dioecy, monoecy, gynodioecy, and an updated online database". American Journal of Botany. 101 (10): 1588–1596. doi: 10.3732/ajb.1400196 . PMID   25326608.
  4. "Silver buffaloberry" (PDF).
  5. LaMotte, R.S. (1952). Catalogue of the Cenozoic plants of North America through 1950. Geological Society of America Memoirs. Vol. 51. Geological Society of America. doi:10.1130/MEM51.
  6. 1 2 Elias, Professor, Thomas S. (1983). Edible Wild Plants A North American Field Guide (Digitized online by Google books). Peter A. Dykeman. Cengage Learning. pp. 9–28, 258. ISBN   0-442-22254-8 . Retrieved 2009-01-25.