Distribution: Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest and distributed widely throughout Washington; Alaska to California, east to the Great Plains, and further east to northeastern North America.
Habitat: Thickets, forest edge, and open slopes, from the lowlands to middle elevations in the mountains.
Flowers: May-August
Origin: Native
Growth Duration: Perennial
Conservation Status: Not of concern
Pollination: Bumblebees, bees, hummingbirds
Deciduous, erect, branching shrubs from rhizomes, the stems usually 1-2 m. tall, glabrous.
Leaves opposite, elliptic or elliptic-ovate, entire or with a few, coarse, irregular teeth, 1.5-5 cm. long and 1-3.5 cm. wide; leaves on young, sterile shoots generally larger, glabrous and more irregular.
Flowers in short, dense, sub-sessile, few-flowered racemes, terminal on the twigs and in the upper axils; corolla white to pink, entire, 5-7 mm. long and nearly as wide, densely hairy within, the 5 lobes as long to nearly as long as the tube; stamens 5; style 2-3 mm. long, glabrous; ovary 4-celled, inferior.
Fruit berry-like, fleshy, with two seeds, ellipsoid, 1-1.5 cm. long, white.
Publication: Rhodora 16: 118. 1914.
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var. albus – common snowberry
Occurring in scattered locations on both sides of the Cascades in Washington; mostly east of the Rocky Mountains in central and eastern North America. -
var. laevigatus – common snowberry Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest and distributed widely throughout Washington; Alaska to California, east to the Rocky Mountains, further eastward where likely introduced.
PNW Herbaria: Specimen records of Symphoricarpos albus in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database
WA Flora Checklist: Symphoricarpos albus checklist entry
OregonFlora: Symphoricarpos albus information
E-Flora BC: Symphoricarpos albus atlas page
CalPhotos: Symphoricarpos albus photos
