Shepherdia canadensis
Common name: 
Russet Buffaloberry
Canadian Buffaloberry
Soapberry
Soopalollie
Foamberry
Pronunciation: 
shef-HAIR-dee-a can-a-DEN-sis
Family: 
Elaeagnaceae
Genus: 
Shepherdia
Type: 
Broadleaf
Native to (or naturalized in) Oregon: 
Yes
  • Deciduous shrub, sprawling to erect, to 6(13) ft [1.8(3.9] m] tall, young branches rusty and scruffy.  Leaves opposite, simple, ovate to oblong-ovate, 3-7 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, green to silvery above, white with rusty dots below, petiole to 6 mm.  Usually dioecious (male and female plants), flowers are yellowish-brown, inconspicuous, 1-2 mm long, in small clusters before leaves appear.  Fruit elliptic, 6-8 mm long, reddish, but sometimes yellow, translucent, very bitter, soapy to the touch.
  • Sun to part shade
  • Hardy to USDA Zone 2      Widely distributed, its most northerly native range is within the Arctic Circle, and from Alaska it extends east across northern Canada to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and southwest across Maine to western New York and northern Ohio, west to the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Its range also extends south from Alaska, generally following the Rocky Mountains south to Arizona and New Mexico, found on the eastside of the Cascade; generally excluded from the Great Basin.  Found in northeast Oregon (e.g., Malheur National Forest).
  • canadensis: of Canada
  • Dallas, Oregon: Delbert Hunter Arboretum
Click image to enlarge
  • plant habit

    plant habit

  • foliage

    foliage

  • leaves

    leaves

  • leaf

    leaf

  • shoots with fruit

    shoots with fruit

  • fruit and leaves

    fruit and leaves

  • shoot with fruit

    shoot with fruit