Common Snowberry

S. albus is an erect, deciduous shrub that produces a stiff, branching main stem and often several smaller shoots from a rhizome. It can spread and colonise an area to form a dense thicket. It reaches 1–2 metres (3+1⁄2–6+1⁄2 feet) in maximum height. The leaves are oppositely arranged on the spreading branches. They are generally oval in shape and vary in size, growing up to 5 centimetres (2 inches) long, or slightly larger on the shoots. The inflorescence is a raceme of up to 16 flowers. Each flower has a small, five-toothed calyx of sepals. The bell-shaped, rounded corolla is approximately 0.5 cm (1⁄4 in) long and is bright pink in colour. It has pointed lobes at the mouth, and the inside is filled with white hairs. The fruit is a fleshy white berry-like drupe measuring around 1 cm in diameter, containing two seeds. The plant mainly reproduces vegetatively by sprouting from its spreading rhizome, but sometimes via seed. Birds disperse the seeds after they eat the fruit.

S. albus occurs across much of Canada and the northern and western United States. It grows in shady and moist mountain and forest habitat, in woodlands and on floodplains and riverbanks. It can grow in a wide variety of habitat types. It is naturalized in parts of Britain, where it has been planted as an ornamental and cover for game animals.

This shrub is an important food source for a number of animals, including bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, and grizzly bears. Livestock such as cattle and sheep readily browse it. Many birds and small mammals use it for food and cover. Pocket gophers dig burrows underneath it during the winter.

Native Americans used the plant as medicine, soap, and the wood was good for arrow shafts. In Russia, the berries are crushed in the hands and rubbed about for a soothing folk-remedy hand lotion. This shrub is used for erosion control in riparian areas, and it is planted in ecological restoration projects on disturbed sites, such as abandoned mines. Its white fruits and blue-green foliage made it a popular ornamental plant, planted around old houses from the 1890s to the 1920s, similar to the Vanhoutte spirea or bridal wreath. It is still sold by some large, diverse conventional nurseries and native plant nurseries, and can be found occasionally in modern landscapes. It thrives in full sun or partial shade and in well-drained soil with a pH range of about 6.0 to 8.5. It is easy to transplant thanks to its fibrous, shallow root system. It fares well in U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zones of 2 to 7. The plant is popular among children in Germany, who play with its ripe berries due to the popping sound they make when thrown on the ground. Because of this the plant, and specifically its berries, are also called Knallerbsen in German.