Salmonberry      RU-bus spek-TAB-i-lis

• Broadleaf deciduous shrub, erect, 3-10 ft (0.6-3 m) tall, may form large, dense thickets, sparingly branched, shreddy bark, and few prickles, although young stems may be very prickly.  Biennial stems, the first year only leaves and axillary buds are produced, buds in the second year develop into lateral shoots which bear the flowers/fruit.  Leaves alternate, compound, 2.5-7.5 cm long, usually 3 leaflets (rarely 5) which are more or less lobed and irregularly toothed, shiny dark green and smooth to wrinkled above, paler and pubescent along the veins below, petiole and midvein often with prickles.   Flowers red or rose colored, usually borne singly but may be in clusters of 2-4, may appear before or with unfolding and expanding leaves.  Fruit an aggregate of druplets, 1.5- 2 cm long, salmon colored to red or reddish purple.  Some say the fruit taste is insipid whereas other find it excellent, the opinions may well be caused by genetic differences in the plants sampled (but also in the samplers?), most agree the berries are somewhat mushy.
• Sun or shade.    A wet-site shrub, often found along streams and wet logged areas.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 5   Native range is from Alaska along the Pacific Coast and southward mostly west of the Cascades in Washington and Oregon to northwestern California, and extends as far east as Idaho.    A "double flowered" sport reportedly found in Sooke, British Columbia is now available from Fraser's Thimble Farms Nursery on Salt Spring Island, B.C., and possibly from other nurseries in the Pacific Northwest.
• spectabilis: remarkable, showy, apparently the flowers.