Description

General: Honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae). Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) is a shrub or small tree that grows up to six meters tall. The leaves are large, opposite, divided into five to seven leaflets, and toothed or irregularly lobed. The fruits are white, berry like drupes, and one to one and a half centimeters in diameter. The flowers are small, white to creamy, with a strong unpleasant odor; numerous in a rounded or pyramidal parasol-like cluster (Pojar & MacKinnon 1994); blooming from mid May to July. The fruits are roundish, dull-white berries about 3/8 inch in diameter, soon becoming blackish, ripening August or September (Grimm 1993).

Distribution: Snowberry inhabits slopes and valley bottoms of the foothills of the Coast Ranges, the Sierra Nevada, and the mountains of southern California (McMinn 1939). It extends northward to British Columbia and eastward to Pennsylvania and the New England states (Ibid.).

For current distribution, please consult the Plant profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.