Thank you Jeff, good article on the snowberry shrub. Another point of
interest is that yes, snowberries are not as tasty as red, orange, or blue
pigmented wild berries, but as always, "There is a reason for everything"
in nature. Turns out, white snowberries have far fewer sugars than their
more colorful counterparts. This results in most wildlife feeding on the
more sugar rich berries and leaving snowberries alone. Later in January
and February, when red and blue colored berries first have their sugars
ferment (resulting in comically drunken birds), and then go bad (or mold),
the low sugar snowberries are still edible and provide a source of food
when there is little else available. So snowberries may not taste as good
or have as much high energy resources, but have a much longer "shelf life"
that sustains wildlife in the leanest of winter months. Here's to the
snowberry!
Ed Dominguez
Seward Park Audubon Center
Seattle
On Sat, Sep 12, 2020 at 12:38 PM <
dgrainger at birdsbydave.com> wrote:
>
Jeff: nice commentary on the snowberries. We were calling then Winter
>
Berries, but I don't know where we picked that moniker up.
>
>
>
>
On 2020-09-12 11:17, Jeff Gibson wrote:
>
> Common snowberry is one of my favorite shrubs despite being about as
>
> common as dirt in many habitats and growing conditions.
>
>
>
> Of course most people notice it for it's bright white berries in the
>
> late summer, fall, and winter. They apparently last so long because
>
> they don't taste so good, although I did see a young chipmunk snorting
>
> them down last summer at Fort Worden. The more I examine snowberry
>
> the more interesting it gets. For one thing it has an exceptionally
>
> long blooming period, starting in April around here, and it's still at
>
> it now as the berries come on.
>
>
>
> Snowberry flowers are very small, growing in little clusters at the
>
> branch tips and typically varying shades of pink with some white bits
>
> some times. Interestingly some plants have darker foliage with a
>
> subtle blueish tint and the flowers show up better on these. Sitting
>
> on the front porch in Everett admiring my handiwork, I noticed a
>
> peculiar feeding pattern of a Rufous Hummer. First it would feed on
>
> the snowberries, then on a Kniphofia then on the porch hummingbird
>
> feeder. It repeated this pattern over and over during the day.
>
> Kniphofia is a South African plant thus not allowed in the native
>
> plant garden as dictated by me - it's relegated to a pot on the porch.
>
> Many times Holly has asked me "can we have this plant in our yard?" If
>
> not native my answer is always "No", and she's allowed me to be
>
> Dictator so far. My only allowance is a pre-existing English Holly,
>
> which is a female and always loaded with berries, which the Waxwings
>
> visit when they show up.
>
>
>
> Earlier in the Summer I was in bad shape and had to take about as much
>
> break time as work time. So on one of my breaks I parked my chair in
>
> front of a nice Snowberry. Hands too shaky to use binoculars I sat
>
> close to the Bush and was amazed at the bug activity. I saw at least
>
> five species of bees just about as many wasps and a number of other
>
> flies and other insects at the flowers, along with some hummingbirds.
>
> Hummingbirds love snowberries even though the flowers are so small.
>
> Actually it makes sense since Snowberry is a member of the honeysuckle
>
> family. One day at Fort Worden when the purple honeysuckle's were
>
> blooming I noticed that the leaves and the flowers were almost
>
> identical color to Snowberry as the vine clambered over the bushes. I
>
> see a lot of hummingbirds at snowberries here in Port Townsend.
>
>
>
> Snowberry is a suckering shrub, and along with Nootka Rose quickly
>
> creates tickets good for wildlife to hide in. If you're a neatnik it
>
> can easily be pruned into formal shapes and hedges but I prefer a more
>
> informal look and I'm letting all the various plants in the yard blend
>
> together with some editing. The bare ground is getting covered up and
>
> I like pruning more than weeding- easier on the knees.
>
>
>
> Jeff Gibson
>
> Crawling around
>
> Everett and Port Townsend ,WA
>
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