General: Deciduous, low, erect shrub, 0.3-1 m tall, forming extensive colonies from rhizomes or by layering; stems dark grey, with shredding bark; twigs reddish-brown, short-hairy.
Leaves: Opposite, on stalks 3-10 mm long, elliptic or egg-shaped, mostly 2.5-8 cm long and 1.5-5 cm wide, entire or with a few blunt, irregular teeth; leaves often larger and more lobed on sterile shoots; glabrous above, hairy beneath at least along veins; similar to those of S. albus, but thicker and more leathery, and often pointed at the tip.
Flowers: Inflorescence of short, dense cluster of few to several flowers, stalked flowers at ends of twigs and in upper leaf axils; corollas bell-shaped, pale pink, tubular below, flaring above to 5 prominent, spreading lobes that equal or are a little longer than the tubes; styles 3-8 mm long, long-hairy near the middle or sometimes glabrous, equalling or slightly exceeding the corollas; anthers 1.5-2 mm long, shorter than the filaments.
Fruits: Berrylike drupes, clusters, white, nearly globose, 6-9 mm long; nutlets 2, each enclosing 1 seed.
1. Stems trailing and rooting at the nodes, the branches rising less than 50 cm................S. hesperius
1. Stems erect, more or less branching, 0.3-3 m tall.
2. Corollas relatively long and narrow, the lobes not more than half the length of the tubes..............S. oreophilus
2. Corollas relatively short and wide, the lobes nearly equalling the tubes.
3. Styles elongate, exserted slightly from the corolla tube, usually long-hairy near the middle.............S. occidentalis
3. Styles short, not exserted from the corolla tube, glabrous.
Source: Illustrated Flora of British Columbia (Douglas et al. 1998)
Habitat / Range
Moist streambanks and lakesides in the steppe and montane zones; frequent in BC east of Coast-Cascade Mountains; N to NT, E to PQ and S to KS, MO, VT, NM and WA.
Ecological Framework for Symphoricarpos occidentalis
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)
