Symphoricarpos albus

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: Core eudicots
Cladus: Asterids
Cladus: Campanulids
Ordo: Dipsacales

Familia: Caprifoliaceae
Subfamilia: Caprifolioideae
Genus: Symphoricarpos
Species: Symphoricarpos albus
Varietas: S. a. var. laevigatus
Name

Symphoricarpos albus (L.) S.F.Blake, Rhodora 16: 118 1914.
Synonyms

Lonicera racemosa
Symphoria albus (L.) Rafin.
Symphoria elongata (Presl ex DC.) Torr. & Gray
Symphoria glauca Hort. ex Lavallee
Symphoria heterophylla Rafin.
Symphoria leucocarpa Hort. ex DC.
Symphoria macrocarpa Hort. ex Lavallee
Symphoria racemosa Pursh
Symphoricarpos albus var. pauciflorus (W. J. Rob. ex A. Gray) S. F. Blake
Symphoricarpos elongatus Presl ex DC.
Symphoricarpos heterophyllus Presl ex DC.
Symphoricarpos leucocarpus Hort. ex C. Koch.
Symphoricarpos pauciflorus Howell
Symphoricarpos racemosus Michaux
Symphoricarpos racemosus var. glaucus Lavallee
Symphoricarpos racemosus var. macrocarpus Lavallee
Vaccinium album L.

Distribution
Native distribution areas:

References

Blake, S.F., 1914. Rhodora; Journal of the New England Botanical Club. Cambridge, MA 16:118.

Links

Hassler, M. 2019. Symphoricarpos albus. World Plants: Synonymic Checklists of the Vascular Plants of the World In: Roskovh, Y., Abucay, L., Orrell, T., Nicolson, D., Bailly, N., Kirk, P., Bourgoin, T., DeWalt, R.E., Decock, W., De Wever, A., Nieukerken, E. van, Zarucchi, J. & Penev, L., eds. 2019. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2019 Aug. 16. Reference page.
Govaerts, R. et al. 2019. Symphoricarpos albus in Kew Science Plants of the World online. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2019 Aug. 16. Reference page.
International Plant Names Index. 2019. Symphoricarpos albus. Published online. Accessed: Aug. 16 2019.
Tropicos.org 2019. Symphoricarpos albus. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published on the internet. Accessed: 2019 Aug. 16.
USDA, ARS, Germplasm Resources Information Network. Symphoricarpos albus in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. Accessed: 09-Oct-10.

Vernacular names
беларуская: Снежнаягаднік белы
čeština: pámelník bílý
Deutsch: Gewöhnliche Schneebeere
English: common snowberry
suomi: Amerikanlumimarja
français: Symphorine
hornjoserbsce: Běły sněženc
magyar: Fehér hóbogyó
lietuvių: Baltauogė meškytė
Nederlands: Sneeuwbes
norsk nynorsk: Snøbær
polski: śnieguliczka biała
русский: Снежноягодник белый

Symphoricarpos albus is a species of flowering plant in the honeysuckle family known by the common name common snowberry.[2] It is native to North America, where it occurs across much of Canada and the northern and western United States.[3][4]

Symphoricarpos albus 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.[5] It is naturalized in parts of Britain, where it has been planted as an ornamental and a cover for game.[6]

Symphoricarpos 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.[5] It reaches 1–2 m (3.3–6.6 ft) in maximum height. Leaves are oppositely arranged on the spreading branches. They are generally oval, differing in size and shape, and up to 5 cm (2.0 in) 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 (0.20 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 a centimeter wide which contains two seeds. The plant sometimes reproduces via seed but it is primarily vegetative, reproducing by sprouting from its spreading rhizome.[5] Birds disperse the seeds after they eat the fruit.[5]

This shrub is an important food source for a number of animals, including bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, and grizzly bears.[5] Livestock such as cattle and sheep readily browse it.[5] Many birds and small mammals use it for food and cover.[5] Pocket gophers dig burrows underneath it during the winter.[5] The fruit and shrub itself are poisonous to humans, causing vomiting.[7]

Native Americans used the plant as a medicine and a soap, and sometimes for food, and the wood was good for arrow shafts.[5] In Russia, the berries are crushed in the hands and rubbed about for a soothing folk-remedy hand lotion.

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.[5] Its white fruits and blue-green foliage made it popular as an ornamental plant[5] 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. Good for USDA hardiness zones of 2 to 7.
Varieties
S. albus var. laevigatus

There are two varieties:

S. albus var. albus, native to eastern North America
S. albus var. laevigatus, native to the Pacific coast. It is a larger shrub, up to 2 m (6.6 ft) tall, and with slightly larger fruit. It is treated as a distinct species, Symphoricarpos rivularis, by some botanists.

References

"Symphoricarpos albus". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – via The Plant List.
"Symphoricarpos albus". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
"Symphoricarpos albus". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
Jones, George Neville (1940). "A monograph of the genus Symphoricarpos". Journal of the Arnold Arboretum. 21 (2): 214–218.
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 – via https://www.feis-crs.org/feis/.
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.
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.