Snowberry Symphoricarpos albus

berries of Snowberry Symphoricarpos albusbush of Snowberry Symphoricarpos albusWalking through Berlin you see this shrub again and again. It is planted in gardens and roadsides because of its high tolerance to the stresses of the climate and of the city like pollution and road salt. It is a North American native plant with two closely related species on the east and west coasts. I had never seen this plant before in Philadelphia and upon researching, it is endangered or threatened along much of the Northeast. It is a shrub about human height with opposite leaves and pink flowers in mid summer. In the fall it looses its leaves and forms white berries that are sometimes pink in hybrid cultivars. The berries have a brown stain on the end where the flower was attached. In North America the ecological role of this shrub was to colonize a variety of soil types and in all stages of succession. It grows in patches or stands and its leaves have an average nutrition consisting of low fat and protein levels. It was fed upon by deer, wild sheep and cattle. The bush itself was shelter for small mammals and the berries may have been a source of food for birds, though not a preferred source. Some Native American peoples used the berry as a wash because it forms a lather and some used it to cure stomach upsets. The berries contain saponins, a bitter chemical, but if cooked the saponin is removed though the fruit is very bland. Its Ecology in Berlin is not well researched, but as it is a habitat to small mammals it may harbor rats or squirrels and I have seen that house sparrows enjoy gathering on the shrub, though I am not sure whether they eat the berries or not.One site mentioned that rabbits eat the bark of the plant. It is not classified as invasive in Germany because it is restricted to the locality it was planted in by its growth habits. Because of its widespread planting and its method of vegetative reproduction, I wonder if in the future this plant could become invasive and intrude in natural spaces outside of the city. It is known that this plant blocks light and may impede forest regrowth. It may be the case that this plant naturalizes without a major disruption to the native forest.  This is not a plant I would use for food or wildlife gardening, unless I were still in the North East of the U.S.


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