Common Name: roundleaf buffaloberry

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Shrub

General: Shrub usually up to 1 m (3 ft) tall; branches unarmed; twigs yellowish to white, densely stellate-hairy.

Leaves: Persistent, opposite, simple, oval, ovate, or orbicular, mostly 0.7-2.5 cm long, pale silvery green above, yellowish white and densely stellate-hairy below, margin entire, slightly rolled under, base rounded to subcordate, apex rounded to obtuse; petiole mostly 2-4 mm long.

Flowers: Male and female flowers on separate shrubs; flowers solitary or few, arising in the axils of leaves; calyx 3.5-5 mm long, the outer surface silvery and scaly to stellate-hairy, yellowish within.

Fruits: Drupe-like, ellipsoid to nearly globose, 5-8 mm long, yellowish white, densely scaly to stellate-hairy.

Ecology: Found on steep, rocky slopes, nutrient poor soils in drier habitats, more common near the lower elevational range of ponderosa pine forests from 4,000-8,500 ft (1219-2591 m), flowers March-June.

Distribution: Navajo, Coconino, and Mohave counties; southwestern U.S.

Notes: Like other species of Shepherdia, roundleaf buffaloberry is a nitrogen fixer and thus has been used on sites undergoing reclamation to add nitrogen to the soil.

Ethnobotany: The Navajo make a lotion of ashes to soothe headaches, toothaches, and sore throats, and to heal a baby-s navel.

Editor: Springer et al. 2011