General:
Medium to tall shrub, 1-4 m tall; stems slender, erect to ascending, usually arching, hairy, the young stems ridged, older ones with reddish-grey, peeling bark.

Leaves:
Alternate, deciduous, dull green, egg-shaped to broadly triangular, 3-6 (10) cm long, coarsely toothed or shallowly pinnately lobed, often with minute, abruptly pointy-tipped, secondary teeth, squared-off to wedge-shaped at the base, on stalks 10-15 mm long, the upper surface green and coarse-hairy to smooth, the lower surface paler, strongly veined and soft-hairy.

Flowers:
Inflorescences diffuse, terminal, pyramidal, somewhat drooping clusters 10-17 cm long, of numerous small (3-5 mm across), short-stalked flowers; corollas white to cream, the petals 5, oval, 1.5-2 mm long; calyces deeply 5-lobed, the lobes about 1.5 mm long, short-hairy on the outer surface; ovaries superior, hairy; stamens about 20.

Fruits:
Achenes, 5, tiny (about 2 mm long), light brown, long-stiff-hairy; fruit clusters turning brown and remaining on the plants over the winter.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Holodiscus discolor (Pursh) Maxim.