Symphoricarpos albus

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Symphoricarpos albus
Symphoricarpos albus 003.JPG
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Dipsacales
Family: Caprifoliaceae
Genus: Symphoricarpos
Species:
S. albus
Binomial name
Symphoricarpos albus
(L.) S.F.Blake 1914
Synonyms [2]
  • Vaccinium albumL. 1753
  • Lonicera alba(L.) Druce
  • Xylosteon album(L.) Moldenke
  • Symphoricarpos rivularisSuksd.
  • Symphoricarpos pauciflorus(J.W. Robbins) Britton

Symphoricarpos albus is a species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family known by the common name common snowberry. [3] Native to North America, it is browsed by some animals and planted for ornamental and ecological purposes, but is poisonous to humans.

Contents

Description

S. albus is an erect, deciduous shrub, producing a stiff, branching main stem and often several smaller shoots from a rhizome. It can spread and colonize an area to form a dense thicket. [4] It reaches 1–2 metres (3+126+12 feet) in maximum height. The leaves are oppositely arranged on the spreading branches. They are generally oval, differing in size and shape, and up to 5 centimetres (2 inches) long, or slightly larger on the shoots. The inflorescence is a raceme of up to 16 flowers. Each flower has a small, five-toothed calyx of sepals. The bell-shaped, rounded corolla is about 0.5 cm (14 in) long and bright pink in color. It has pointed lobes at the mouth and the inside is filled with white hairs. The fruit is a fleshy white berry-like drupe about 1 cm wide which contains two seeds. The plant sometimes reproduces via seed but it is primarily vegetative, reproducing by sprouting from its spreading rhizome. [4] Birds disperse the seeds after they eat the fruit. [4]

Varieties

There are two varieties:

Distribution and habitat

S. albus occurs across much of Canada and the northern and western United States. [5] [6]

It grows in shady and moist mountain and forest habitat, in woodlands and on floodplains and riverbanks. It can grow in a wide variety of habitat types. [4] It is naturalized in parts of Britain, where it has been planted as an ornamental and cover for game animals. [7]

Ecology

This shrub is an important food source for a number of animals, including bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, and grizzly bears. [4] Livestock such as cattle and sheep readily browse it. [4] Many birds and small mammals use it for food and cover. [4] Pocket gophers dig burrows underneath it during the winter. [4]

Toxicity

The fruit and shrub are poisonous to humans, causing vomiting. [8]

Uses

Native Americans used the plant as medicine, soap, sometimes for food, and the wood was good for arrow shafts. [4] In Russia, the berries are crushed in the hands and rubbed about for a soothing folk-remedy hand lotion.[ citation needed ]

This shrub is used for erosion control in riparian areas, and it is planted in ecological restoration projects on disturbed sites such as abandoned mines. [4] Its white fruits and blue-green foliage made it popular as an ornamental plant [4] planted around old houses of the 1890s through the 1920s like with the Vanhoutte Spirea or Bridalwreath. It is still sold by some large diverse conventional nurseries and native plant nurseries, and occasionally found in modern landscapes. It grows in full sun to full light shade and a well-drained soil that is slightly acid to well alkaline, pH range of about 6.0 to 8.5. it is easy to transplant with its fibrous, shallow root system. It fares well in U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zones of 2 to 7.

Related Research Articles

<i>Symphoricarpos</i> Genus of flowering plants in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae

Symphoricarpos, commonly known as the snowberry, waxberry, or ghostberry, is a small genus of about 15 species of deciduous shrubs in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae. With the exception of the Chinese coralberry, S. sinensis, which is indigenous to western China, all species are native to North and Central America. The name of the genus is derived from the Ancient Greek words συμφορεῖν (sumphoreîn), meaning "to bear together", and καρπός (karpós), meaning "fruit". It refers to the closely packed clusters of berries the species produces.

<i>Vaccinium ovatum</i> Berry and plant

Vaccinium ovatum is a North American species of flowering shrub known by the common names evergreen huckleberry, winter huckleberry, cynamoka berry and California huckleberry. Vaccinium ovatum is classified in phylum: Magnoliaphyta, order: Ericales, family: Ericaceae, genus: Vaccinium, and species: ovatum.

<i>Symphoricarpos mollis</i> Species of shrub

Symphoricarpos mollis, with the common names creeping snowberry, Southern California snowberry, and trip vine, is a shrub in the Honeysuckle Family (Caprifoliaceae). It is found in western North America from British Columbia to California inland to Nevada and Idaho.

<i>Euonymus americanus</i> Species of flowering plant

Euonymus americanus is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae. Common names include strawberry bush, American strawberry bush, bursting-heart, hearts-a-bustin, and hearts-bustin'-with-love. It is native to the eastern United States, its distribution extending as far west as Texas. It has also been recorded in Ontario.

<i>Sphaeralcea ambigua</i> Species of flowering plant

Sphaeralcea ambigua, is a species of flowering plant commonly known as desert globemallow or apricot mallow, is a member of the genus Sphaeralcea in the mallow family (Malvaceae).

<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>Ribes aureum</i> Species of plant

Ribes aureum, known by the common names golden currant, clove currant, pruterberry and buffalo currant, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Ribes native to North America.

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

Symphoricarpos occidentalis, commonly called western snowberry, is a woody species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family.

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

Symphoricarpos longiflorus is a species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family known by the common names desert snowberry and fragrant snowberry. It is native to the western United States from the Great Basin to western Texas, as well as northwestern Mexico.

<i>Gaultheria hispidula</i> Species of plant

Gaultheria hispidula, commonly known as the creeping snowberry or moxie-plum, and known to Micmaq tribes of Newfoundland as Manna Teaberry, is a perennial spreading ground-level vine of the heath family Ericaceae. It is native to North America and produces small white edible berries. It fruits from August to September. Its leaves and berries taste and smell like wintergreen.

<i>Liatris punctata</i> Species of flowering plant

Liatris punctata is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names dotted gayfeather, dotted blazingstar, and narrow-leaved blazingstar. It is native to North America, where it occurs throughout the plains of central Canada, the central United States, and northern Mexico.

<i>Gaylussacia frondosa</i> Berry and plant

Gaylussacia frondosa is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common names dangleberry and blue huckleberry. It is native to the eastern United States, where it occurs from New Hampshire to South Carolina.

<i>Holodiscus dumosus</i> Species of flowering plant

Holodiscus dumosus is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, with the common names mountain spray, rock-spiraea, bush oceanspray, and glandular oceanspray.

<i>Physocarpus malvaceus</i> Species of flowering plant

Physocarpus malvaceus is a species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common name mallow ninebark. It is native to western North America.

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

Symphoricarpos oreophilus is a North American species of flowering plant in the Caprifoliaceae, or honeysuckle family, known by the common name mountain snowberry. It has a wide distribution in western Canada, the United States, and northwestern Mexico. It is found in mountainous areas such as the Cascades, the Sierra Nevada, the Rockies, and the Sierra Madre Occidental from British Columbia to the Copper Canyon region of Chihuahua, from the coastal states as far inland as the Black Hills, the Oklahoma Panhandle, and trans-Pecos Texas.

<i>Actaea elata</i> Species of flowering plant

Actaea elata is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family known by the common name tall bugbane. It is native to the Pacific Northwest of North America, where it can be found in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon.

Symphoricarpos palmeri, common name Palmer's snowberry, is a North American species of plants in the Honeysuckle Family. It has been found in the southwestern United States, as well as in the Mexican State of Chihuahua inside Basaseachic Falls National Park.

Symphoricarpos hesperius, called the trailing snowberry or creeping snowberry, is a North American species of trailing shrubs in the honeysuckle family. It is native to southwestern Canada and the northwestern United States

Symphoricarpos acutus, the sharpleaf snowberry, is a North American species of trailing shrubs in the honeysuckle family. It is native to the western United States.

Symphoricarpos parishii, or Parish's snowberry, is a North American species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family. It had been found in California, Nevada, Arizona, and Baja California.

References

  1. NatureServe (2024). "Symphoricarpos albus". Arlington, Virginia. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  2. "Symphoricarpos albus". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew via The Plant List. Note that this website has been superseded by World Flora Online
  3. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Symphoricarpos albus". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 McWilliams, Jack (2000). "Symphoricarpos albus". Fire Effects Information System (FEIS). US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service (USFS), Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.
  5. "Symphoricarpos albus". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
  6. Jones, George Neville (1940). "A monograph of the genus Symphoricarpos". Journal of the Arnold Arboretum. 21 (2): 214–218.
  7. Gilbert, O. L. (1995). "Symphoricarpos albus (L.) S. F. Blake (S. rivularis Suksd., S. racemosus Michaux)". Journal of Ecology. 83 (1): 159–66. doi:10.2307/2261160. JSTOR   2261160.
  8. Lewis, Walter H. (1979-12-14). "Snowberry (Symphoricarpos) Poisoning in Children". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 242 (24): 2663. doi:10.1001/jama.1979.03300240009006. ISSN   0098-7484. PMID   501855.