Common Name: Palmer's snowberry

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Shrub

Wetland Status: FAC

General: Plants erect to trailing, bark gray to light brown on young branches to 2 m tall.

Leaves: Opposite, pubescent, ovate to obovate, tips acuminate or rounded, margins toothed to entire, 1-3 cm long, margins entire to sinuate.

Flowers: Flowers funnelform, small, often borne in pairs, white to pink in color, 9-12 mm long, the tube pilose within.

Fruits: Fruits capsules, borne in pairs or singular, nutlets flattened, elliptic, 4-5 mm.

Ecology: Found on moist slopes, swales, and in drainages, in mountain forests from 7,000-8,000 ft (2134-2438 m); flowers May-July.

Notes: Can be distinguished by the twigs pubescence, the trailing branches, and the paler lower leaf surface.

Ethnobotany: Specific use of species unknown, but uses for the genus include a decoction of the root taken as a physic remedy, and the use of the stems for making arrows and cradleboard shades.

Etymology: Symphoricarpos is from the Greek-symphorein, borne together, and-karpos, fruit, because of the clustered berries, while palmeri refers to Edward Palmer (1829-1911) who collected throughout the southwest in the late 1800s.

Synonyms: None

Editor: LCrumbacher, 2011