General:
Deciduous, trailing shrub; stems reclining, 1-3 m long, often rooting at the nodes, forming small tubers, and producing erect branches to 60 cm high; twigs slightly short-hairy.

Leaves:
Opposite, on stalks 1-3 mm long, egg-shaped to elliptic, 1-3 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide, entire or sometimes with a few coarse teeth or shallow lobes; leaves on vigorous shoots often larger and more frequently toothed or lobed, slightly hairy at least beneath.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a short terminal cluster of a few flowers, sometimes also a few flowers in the upper leaf axils; corollas widely and often asymmetrically bell-shaped, pale pink, 3-5 mm long, tubular at the bases, flaring to 5 lobes almost as long as the tubes; tubes with collars of short hairs around the top inside; styles 2-3 mm long, glabrous, about as long as the tubes; stamens as long as corolla lobes, the anthers 1 mm long, a little shorter than the filaments.

Fruits:
Berrylike drupes, clustered, white, nearly globose, 5-6 mm long; nutlets 2, each enclosing a single seed.

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:
Symphoricarpos mollis Nutt.
Symphoricarpos mollis subsp. hesperius (G.N. Jones) Abrams ex Ferris
Symphoricarpos mollis var. hesperius (G.N. Jones) Cronquist