FACTOID #31: Think Antarctica is inhospitable? Think again - its land area is only ninety-eight percent ice. Reassuringly, the other 2% is "barren rock".
The leaves are 1.5-5 cm long, rounded, entire or with one or two basal lobes. The flowers are small, greenish-white to pink, in small clusters of 5-15 together in most species, solitary or in pairs in some (e.g. S. microphyllus). The fruit are conspicuous, 1-2 cm diameter, soft, varying from white (e.g. S. albus) to pink (S. microphyllus) to red (S. orbiculatus) and in one species (S. sinensis), blackish purple. They are edible in as far as not being poisonous, but are completely lacking in any flavour, so are not generally eaten. Even birds tend to leave them until alternative foods are scarce.
The Common Snowberry Symphoricarpos albus is a popular ornamental shrub in gardens, grown for its decorative white fruit. There are two varieties, S. albus var. albus, native to eastern North America, and S. albus var. laevigatus native to the Pacific coast. The latter is a larger shrub, up to 2 m tall, and with slightly larger fruit; it is treated as a distinct species S. rivularis by some botanists.
Longflower snowberry is a native, perennial shrub mostly 20 to 39 inches (50-100 cm) tall [58].
Longflower snowberry is browsed by deer and livestock and the seeds are eaten by birds, especially the gallinaceous birds such as ring-necked pheasants, grouse and quail [57].
Longflower snowberry is considered "largely unpalatable" to livestock in the desert regions of Nevada and Utah [54], and is rated as fair in both energy and protein content [12].
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