Shepherdia canadensis / Canadian buffaloberry

Adjectives: disturbed, edible, fire, interesting bits, native, nutrient poor soils, shrub, understory

Also known as:  russet buffaloberry, soopolallie, soapberry, foamberry

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Canadian buffaloberry is a deciduous understory shrub, up to 13 feet tall. You will most likely notice it in late summer, fall, or even winter because of its red, berry-like fruits. They are edible, but bitter and soapy. Usually, they are not eaten by themselves but most popularly (now) in a concoction sold as “Indian ice cream.”

The branches and leaves of Canadian buffalobery are both opposite, the leaves having only short petioles. Critical features of the leaves are that they look like leaves… oval, with entire margins, widest below the middle. On the other hand, the undersides of the leaves are dense with whitish-silver stellate trichomes (hairs) and flaky scales that can be rubbed off. The upper surfaces may be hairless (glabrous) or may also have the trichomes. The ones in the photo gallery are of the latter sort.

And of the twigs and branches… first of all, no spines. New twigs are shiny with russet scales that eventually fall off.

The flowers are teeny and inconspicuous, appearing in clusters below the leaf nodes before the leaves appear in the spring. Canadian buffaloberry is dioecious, meaning that male and female flowers are on separate plants. The females are yellowish-green while the males are brownish yellow. Each flower has 4 teeny lobes made out of fused sepals. The 8 stamens of the male flowers extend well beyond the rest of the flower. Females are more funnel shaped with a single pistil enclosed in the sepal tube. Perhaps next year, I will get photos of the flowers, but for now, we have the fruits and leaves. Until then, the Southwest Colorado website has some very good photos of the flowers. The “specimen” in our photos was along the lower part of the  Tin Cup Trail.

The fruits of the Canadian buffaloberry are bright red to yellowish-orange and oval. They are not, technically, berries. The fruits feel soapy if crushed and if you put them in your mouth (after checking with your mother) a bitter taste quickly overpowers an initial sweet taste. Berries often remain on bushes into mid-winter, which is fine with both black and grizzly bears.

Canadian buffaloberry is found in the forest understory in a wide variety of habitats including dry and rocky, or moist open forests, in thickets, along streambanks and sites with recent disturbance. It is one of the first plants to colonize burned forests.

Interesting bits: Canadian buffaloberries are high in protein, but have a ratio of phosphorous to calcium that is too low for good browse (the calcium ties up the phosphorous which is an important and scarce nutrient). Still, the leaves are eaten by mule and white-tailed deer, bison, elk, bighorn sheep and snowshoe hares. Dormant plants are an important winter choice for some. In addition to the bears, ruffed grouse also eat the berries. These are rich in vitamin C and iron.

The bitter taste of the berries is due to saponins. These compounds are also responsible for the soapy foam of crushed berries. In large quantities, these will mess up your stomach, causing diarrhea and cramps.

Nevertheless, the berries are used by indigenous peoples in a number of ways. After sugar became available, the berries were whipped to a foamy froth with copious amounts of added sugar. This concoction is known as “Indian ice cream” and is commercially available in some places (I’m not sure about the Valley). Before sugar, bulbs of the common or blue camas (Camassia quamash) were the sweetener.

The berries were also used for a number of medicines. Whether any were actually effective, I don’t know. However, crushed and boiled berries can be used as liquid soap and shampoo, and I am more likely to think that would work (due to the saponins, and hence the other common name, soapberry).

Canada buffaloberry, as a member of the Elaeagnaceae, is good at colonizing disturbed sites and is useful in restoration projects because of the association of its roots with Frankia spp. nodule forming and nitrogen-fixing bacteria. This allows them to grow in poor soils, and they “fertilize” other plants in the process.