General: Erect shrub; stems 1-4 m tall, bright green, very prominently angled, glabrous or minutely hairy when young.
Leaves: Alternate, deciduous (often some persistent), oval to oblong-elliptic, 0.9-3 cm long, 0.4-1.6 cm wide, entire, glabrous to minutely hairy, tips usually rounded; juvenile leaves persistent, dark green, finely toothed.
Flowers: Solitary in leaf axils; flower stalks 2-8 mm long; corollas yellowish-pink, waxy, broadly bell- to urn-shaped, 4-5 mm long; calyces shallowly lobed, the lobes persistent in fruit; filaments glabrous; anthers with prominent spreading awns, the apical pore-bearing tubes short.
Fruits: Berries, globe-shaped, 6-10 mm wide, bright red; edible, often tart.
Dry to moist forests and on decaying wood in the lowland and montane zones; common in W BC, mainly west of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, infrequent in SE BC; N to SE AK and 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, submontane to subalpine, Western North American deciduous shrub distributed more in the Pacific than the Cordilleran region. Occurs in cool mesothermal climates on nitrogen-poor soils; its occurrence decreases with increasing elevation and continentality.
