General: Deciduous, sprawling to erect shrub, spreading from rhizomes and by layering, 0.5-3.5 m tall; twigs glabrous; bark smooth, reddish to grey.
Leaves: Opposite, stalked, elliptic in outline, most shallowly 3-lobed but some unlobed, jaggedly toothed, often with an isolated pair of glandular teeth near the junction of the blade and stalk, glabrous or hairy beneath, especially along the veins, turning crimson in the fall.
Flowers: Inflorescence a small, compact, flat or rounded cluster of few to several flowers, 1-3 cm across, borne on short axillary stalks with a pair of leaves; flowers all alike and fertile; petals whitish, fused at bases into tubes that flare (4-7 mm wide) at the tops to 5 lobes; stamens inconspicuous, the filaments 1 mm long or less.
Fruits: Berrylike drupes, clustered, red or orange, 0.8-1.5 cm long, each with a single, large, flattened stone.
1. Leaves deeply 3-lobed; sterile corollas 1.5-2.5 cm across; stamens conspicuous, exserted from the corollas V. opulus
1. Leaves shallowly 3-lobed; corollas all 0.4-0.7 cm across; stamens inconspicuous V. edule
Habitat / Range
Wet to moist streambanks, swamps and forests in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; frequent throughout BC; N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF, and S to PA, ID, CO and OR.
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)
Shade-tolerant/intolerant, submontane to subalpine, transcontinental North American deciduous shrub. Occurs in continental boreal and cool temperate climates on fresh to very moist, nitrogen-rich soils; occurrence increases with increasing continentality. Rare to common (especially in broad-leaved forests) on water-receiving and water-collecting sites. A nitrophytic species characteristic of Moder and Mull humus forms.
