Common snowberry: the shrub that looks best bare, with white winter berries

Snowberry is a shrub that looks its best in winter, when waxy white berries cling to bare wiry branches. A National Park Service "Featured Creature" article from the Klamath Inventory and Monitoring Network describes Symphoricarpos albus, common snowberry, which grows across southern Oregon, northern California and much of North America.

What it looks like

In winter the shrub is leafless. In spring tiny leaf buds open into simple, often irregular oval leaves 1 to 3 cm long, up to 6 cm on new shoots. New shoots often carry larger, hairy-underside leaves that can be deeply lobed, and leaf edges may be smooth, lobed or wavy-toothed. Leaves grow in opposite pairs. Tiny, inconspicuous pinkish bell-shaped flowers 4 to 6 mm long hang in clusters at branch tips, as in others of the honeysuckle family. In late summer and autumn the flowers become round green fruits that ripen into puffy white berries 8 to 12 mm across; the leaves turn yellow and fall, and the berries stay through winter.

The name comes from Greek: symphorein, "bear together", and karpos, "fruit", with albus meaning white, for the white fruit borne in tight clusters.

Where it grows

Snowberry is native to the Pacific Northwest and commonly found below about 1,219 meters (4,000 ft) on both sides of the Cascades. It grows in woodlands, along streambanks and on north-facing slopes from southeast Alaska to southern California and across the northern United States and Canadian provinces. It is naturalized in the eastern United States, meaning it is not native there but has established populations on its own.

How it spreads, and who uses it

It rarely regenerates from seed. It mainly sprouts from underground stems called rhizomes, which sprout after fire or other disturbance, so in fire-prone areas snowberry is often among the first plants to return. This habit builds thickets that shelter birds and small mammals. The flowers attract song birds, hummingbirds, butterflies and bees. Songbirds and bears eat the winter berries, mice and rabbits eat the stems, and elk and deer prefer the leaves. In the Pacific Northwest the larva of the sphinx moth Sphinx vashti feeds on it.

It is widely used in restoration. It prefers well-drained soil but tolerates wet, dry and nutrient-poor soils, and grows best in part sun while tolerating shade and full sun. Its deep roots make it a good choice for erosion control on slopes and for bank stabilization along streams.

Traditional uses

The page says snowberry fruits contain saponin, a naturally soapy substance with antioxidant and antimicrobial effects on skin, and that crushed berries can be rubbed on skin to cleanse and soothe, and are said to heal rashes and burns. It adds that Native Americans used the berries to clean hair, made a tea from soaked roots for stomach disorders and from twigs for fevers, and tied the branches into brooms. The berries are not edible for people: they taste bad and are considered toxic in large amounts.

Where to see it

Common snowberry occurs at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve, Redwood National and State Parks and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, and other snowberry species grow in Lassen Volcanic National Park and Lava Beds National Monument.

Sources

• National Park Service, Klamath Inventory and Monitoring Network, "Common Snowberry", Featured Creature, February 2022, prepared by Jennifer Chenoweth (https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/common-snowberry.htm); the article's photos are credited to people outside the Service and are left out; rewritten in hubnx's own words.