Common Name: oceanspray

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Shrub

Wetland Status: FACU

General: Spreading shrub 1.5-6 m tall, the bark dark-reddish to chestnut brown, becoming dark gray and exfoliating, young twigs light, straw-colored, pubescent and villous, the internodes about one-half the length of the leaves.

Leaves: Alternate, ovate to ovate-elliptic or oblong, truncate to cuneate at the base, apex rounded to obtuse, the teeth deep, ending with a small mucro, 4-6 teeth per side, gray green to green above, sparingly pubescent, paler beneath, pubescent to villous or tomentose, blades 3-8 cm long, 2-7 cm wide, on petioles 0.5-2.5 cm long.

Flowers: Dense and spreading compound inflorescence, villous, 5-25 cm long, 5-25 cm wide, flowers on pedicels 1.5-3 cm long, sepals triangular ovate to elliptic ovate, acute to obtuse at apex, 1.5-2 mm long, the petals oval, 2 mm long, with several hairs on the outer base, the stamens longer than the sepals.

Fruits: Achenes with straight upper edge and convex lower edge.

Ecology: Found in forests and woodlands from sea level to 10,000 ft (3048 m), flowers June-August.

Distribution: Ranges from Oregon and down the Sierra Nevada to the intermountain region from Utah south to Arizona and into northern Mexico.

Notes: Distinguished from the similar H. dumosus by virtue of the many more divided teeth on the leaves and that the leaves do not continue down the petiole but end at the base.

Ethnobotany: An infusion of the seeds taken for smallpox, black measles, and chicken pox, and as a blood purifier, while an infusion of the bark used as an eyewash, and strengthening tonic for convalescents and athletes. Poultice of the leaves applied to soothe sore throats.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley 2011

Etymology: Holodiscus comes from the Greek holos, entire, and diskos, a disk, the disk unlobed, and discolor is from the Greek prefix "dis-" which like the Latin "bis-" means two or twice, and thus of two or different colors.