General: Deciduous shrub, loosely branched, 1-2 m tall; stems erect, usually glabrous, unarmed except for a few, 4-10 mm long, nodal spines; bark greyish, flaky, red underneath.
Leaves: Alternate, mostly egg-shaped, rounded to heart-shaped at the base, 2-8 cm wide, shallowly 3-5-lobed, also with a smaller, lower unequal lobe, glabrous or sometimes sparsely hairy, coarsely toothed; stalks about equal to or slightly longer than the blades, sparsely hairy and with a few stalked, glandular hairs.
Flowers: Inflorescence of 1-4 flowers in a drooping raceme shorter than the leaves; flower stalks 3-7 mm long, not jointed below the flowers; petals white, 1-1.5 mm long, oblong or egg-shaped; hypanthium tubular bell-shaped, 2.5-3.5 mm long; calyces greenish-white, glabrous or hairy; styles soft-hairy to or above the middle, about equaling the stamens.
Fruits: Berries, round, reddish-purple, 7-9 mm long, glabrous.
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)