SYMPHORICARPOS. Snowberry, coralberry. North America and China. An interesting group of mostly smaller shrubs in the honeysuckle family. Several are broadly distributed over California, most often encountered in woods and along streams. They often form carpets or thickets, according to their size, both by suckering and by the rooting of stems where they touch the ground. The individual stems are usually slender and may arch gracefully. Neatly set along them are pairs of smallish, often nearly round, sometimes furry leaves. Small, narrowly tubular to bell-shaped flowers, colored white to pink, are carried in small clusters at the shoot tips or leaf axils in summer. Pearl-like berries, colored pure white to purplish red in various species, develop later and often hang on until late winter. These are undemanding shrubs for naturalizing or more formal use in borders and screens. All are sun-tolerant with regular watering, but thrive as well or better with moderate to occasional watering in part shade, in most soils. All are hardy, though their extreme limits vary somewhat.
albus. This is the familiar snowberry (though perhaps not by name, to many people) of California creeksides. It can form broad thickets or sometimes narrower fountains, up to 5’ high. It has soft, bright green to blue-green leaves, about 1" long on the side shoots but noticeably larger on stronger, suckering shoots from the base. The bell-shaped flowers are only about 1/4" long, light pink or white with a pink tinge. The berries are far showier, swelling to 1/2" and pearly white in color. ‘Tilden Park’, introduced by the botanic garden of that name (and one of my “most recommended” places to visit) is a bushy selection with bright, clean foliage and a reliably heavy crop of large berries. 10oF. or less.
orbiculatus. Coralberry. Eastern U.S. Like our native snowberry, this is a bushy, suckering, slender-stemmed shrub. It grow 3-6’ high. The leaves are broad, up to 1" long or a bit more, dark green above and pale beneath. The flowers are similar to those of S. albus, usually off-white with a pink tinge. Developing in their wake are small pearly berries which develop pink to deep red shading as they develop. ‘Variegatus’ is a smaller, exceptionally bushy shrub with small yellow-margined leaves.
rotundifolius. This is a mountain native, often encountered at the edges of woods and on open slopes in the high Sierra. It has gracefully arching stems, often lying low to the ground, and round leaves 1/2-1" long. The nodding flowers are quite pretty, though only the overall clusters show up well from a distance. They have nearly the form of some fuchsias, with narrow 1/2-3/4" tubes and flared tips, white to deep pink overall. The white berries are only about 1/4" long but make a good show. Below 0oF.