Common Name: stretchberry

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Shrub

Wetland Status: FACU

General: Shrub to small tree 2-5 m tall, the younger twigs pubescent.

Leaves: Opposite, some leaves are fascicled, oblanceolate to elliptic, entire to serrulate, 1.5-5.5 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide, rounded to obtuse at base and apex, glabrous to sparsely pubescent on upper surface, densely pubescent below when young, generally the leaves are glabrous with age.

Flowers: Inconspicuous, with staminate flowers sessile, pistillate flowers pedicellate, the calyx minute, unequally 5-6 cleft to lacking, corolla lacking.

Fruits: Drupe, 5-7 mm long, ellipsoid and blue black.

Ecology: Found in moist soils of canyon bottoms from 4,500-6,500 ft (1372-1981 m), flowers May-June.

Distribution: Ranges from Utah and Colorado, west to California and east to Oklahoma and Texas and south into Chihuahua.

Notes: The opposite to fascicle leaves are distinctive among the shrubs when combined with the bright green leaves that when young are generally pubescent. Generally this species has incorporated the former F. neomexicana as a subspecies. Distinguished from F. shrevei by having wider leaves that are serrate.

Ethnobotany: Leaves used as a ceremonial emetic. Plant used to make Evilway big hoop and pahos (prayer sticks). Fruit occasionally used as food.

Etymology: Forestiera is named for Charles Le Forestier, an 18th century French naturalist and physician, while pubescens means having soft, downy hair.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley 2011