Photo: Bailey Duncan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Canada Buffaloberry

Shepherdia canadensis

Also called russet buffaloberry, soapberry, soopolallie, rabbitberry.

A slow, thornless northern shrub that fixes its own nitrogen, with silvery, rust-flecked leaves and bitter red berries that bears and birds eat.

Nitrogen fixingDrought tolerantWildlife value

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 3–8 ft
USDA zones: 2–8
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Rocky ground, sandy barrens and stream banks
Native range: Alaska and 23 other states, north to North Dakota, south to Arizona and west to Oregon
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Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming
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Canada buffaloberry is a thornless shrub of northern woods, rocky slopes and shores, from Newfoundland to Alaska and south in the mountains to Arizona and New Mexico. In the East it reaches south only to Maine, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania and the Great Lakes states. Its roots carry bacteria that fix nitrogen, so it thrives on poor sand and gravel. Its bright red berries are bitter and soapy, but bears, grouse and other birds eat them. Maine, Illinois and Pennsylvania list it as endangered, Ohio as threatened and Minnesota as a species of special concern, and it has vanished from Indiana. Grow it on a dry, sunny or partly shaded bank, in sand, gravel or rock.

Size, growth and what to expect

It grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It makes a rounded, open shrub 3 to 8 feet tall and about as wide, rarely taller. Its twigs are covered with rusty brown scales. The leaves are 1.5 to 2.75 inches long, dark green above and silvery beneath with rusty flecks. Seedlings first bear fruit at 4 to 6 years.

Tiny yellowish flowers open on bare twigs in April and May, before the leaves. On female plants, bright red or sometimes yellow berries about a quarter inch across ripen from June into August.

The berries are a major food from midsummer into fall for black and grizzly bears and for grouse. People have long whipped them with water into a froth or pressed them into cakes. It grows wild in open woods, on rocky slopes and riverbanks and on sandy or gravelly shores.

How to grow Canada Buffaloberry

Canada buffaloberry grows in full sun or part shade. It thrives on poor sand, gravel or rock. It takes limy soil and drought, but it does not like summer heat. Plant it 4 feet from a wall and set plants 5 feet apart. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper, and put the native soil back in. It is hard to raise from seed: the seed is often poor, it sprouts erratically, and it rots easily in a greenhouse. Sow fresh seed outdoors in fall, a quarter inch deep, and mulch the bed over winter. Stored seed needs three to six months damp in the refrigerator before a spring sowing.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. It fixes its own nitrogen, so skip fertilizer.

Plants are male or female, and only females bear fruit, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. It is of special value to native bees. The berries are bitter and soapy from saponin, which thorough cooking breaks down.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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