General: Deciduous shrub, loosely branched, 0.5-2 m tall; stems erect to spreading, 1-3 stout, chestnut-colored spines at the nodes, otherwise usually unarmed although sometimes bristly on the internodes; bark grey to brownish.
Leaves: Alternate, broadly egg-shaped, 2-6 cm wide, usually 3-lobed slightly over half their length, the lower lobes again shallowly cleft into 2 unequal segments, hairy; stalks about equal to or slightly longer than the blades.
Flowers: Inflorescence of 1-4 flowers in a slender, drooping raceme more or less equal to the leaves; flower stalks not jointed below the flowers, subtended by 1-3 small, hairy bracteoles; petals white to red, 1.5-2.5 mm long, egg-shaped; hypanthium narrowly bell-shaped, 2.5-3 mm long; calyces red to reddish-green, the lobes narrowly oblong to rounded, 5-7 mm long; styles densely soft long-hairy above the middle, about equaling the stamens.
Fruits: Berries, round, purplish-black, 6-10 mm long, glabrous.
Moist to mesic thickets, meadows, open woodlands, and forests in the lowland zone; frequent on Vancouver Island, the Gulf islands and adjacent mainland; S to CA.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
A shade-tolerant/intolerant, submontane to montane, Western North American deciduous shrub distributed more in the Pacific than in the Cordilleran region. Occurs in maritime to submaritime cool mesothermal climates on moderately dry to fresh, nitrogen-medium soils; its occurrence decreases with increasing elevation and continentality. Sporadic in semi-open Douglas-fir forests on waterÂshedding sites; persists on cutover areas. Characteristic of early-seral communities.
