russet buffaloberry

Photo: Robert Flogaus-Faust — CC BY 4.0 · source

Survives zone 2 through 6

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

⚠ Honestly: bitter and saponin-rich; whipped into 'Indian ice cream' — an acquired taste, poor fresh.

Hardiness

Zone 2–6

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer

Mature size

Shrub 1–2 m

Light

Partial to full sun (more shade-tolerant than S. argentea)

Soil pH

5.5–8.5 (very wide; nitrogen-fixing)

Environment

Boreal

Native range

Right across boreal North America, from Alaska and Newfoundland south through the Rockies to New Mexico — open conifer forest, riverbanks and rocky slopes, often on limestone.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

3–4 yrs

Growth speed

Slow to moderate

Spacing

200 cm (79 in) apart — about 4 m² (43 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Opposite, oval 2–6 cm, dark green above and startlingly different beneath — silver-scaled and peppered with rusty-brown dots. Turning a leaf over is the identification, and it is unmistakable.

Root system

Shallow, wide-spreading and strongly suckering, carrying nitrogen-fixing nodules formed with Frankia bacteria rather than the rhizobia of the pea family. That is what lets it colonise raw gravel, and it is why a single plant becomes a thicket — useful on a bank, a nuisance in a bed.

Fruit description

Translucent red to amber berries about 5 mm. ⚠ Markedly bitter and heavily saponin-rich — the saponins are why the fruit whips like egg white into the 'Indian ice cream' (sxusem) of many Interior and Northwest nations, and also why eating a large quantity raw causes stomach upset. Taken in small amounts, traditionally.

Propagation

Seed after cold stratification, or suckers. Cuttings are difficult. Dioecious, so plant both sexes.

Pollination

DIOECIOUS — needs male and female plants

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.