Snowberry (Symphorocarpus albus)
Height: 3 to 6 feet
Spread: 3 to 6 feet
Bloom Time: June to July
Bloom Description: Pink
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Fruit: Showy, White
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Hedge
Attracts: Birds, Butterflies, Hummingbirds
Tolerate: Drought, Clay Soil, Erosion, Deer
In August of 1805 while on their expedition of discovery, Captain Merewether Lewis noticed near Pattee Creek “a species of honeysuckle much in it’s growth and leaf like the small honeysuckle of the Missouri only reather larger and bears a globular berry as large as a garden pea and as white as was.”
Lewis collected a specimen of the snowberry bush from the banks of the creek and a few seeds were sent back to Philadelphia and turned over to Bernard McMahon, who planted them, and in October 1812 a few cuttings were sent to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson wrote to McMahon saying most of the cuttings were thriving in his garden and showing “some of the most beautiful berries I have ever seen.”
Snowberry is a rounded shrub with ascending branches. Its short stalked flowers form at the branch tips in clusters of 2 to 10 flowers. Snowberry has a tendency to want to spread and form a dense thicket or colony which can be controlled by cutting away the suckers.
Snowberries produce white fruits that aren’t actually berries, but rather, drupes - a fruit with a hard woody layer surrounding the seed. These woody encasements are called nutlets and each drupe contains two with one seed per nutlet. Though they can reproduce by seed, they more typically reproduce by rhizome. The fruits begin appearing in late summer and can last into the winter, making them a viable winter food source for birds such as grouse, robins, and thrushes.
The fruit are tasteless and of little value as far as food. Native American tribes used them for medicinal or disinfectant purposes. The Chehalis used the berries as a shampoo and the leaves as a wash for injuries. ■
