Description
Canada buffaloberry is a dioecious species with leathery, shiny leaves covered with orange spots, and small yellow flowers in early spring followed by red, shiny berries.
Soopolallie (from Chinnok language) was and still is an important shrub for the First Peoples of British Columbia. The berries are still being used in various ways; fresh, dried up, or boiled and dried as a cake. They contain saponins which account for the foamy aspect when whisked into the famous ‘indian ice-cream’. The berries also have medicinal and cosmetic usage and were valued and used as gifts/trade by the Native Peoples.
It is a most valuable shrub, also good in naturalizations and restorations because of its drought tolerance and nitrogen-fixing properties. The berries are eaten by a variety of birds and mammals (said to be a favourite food of the grizzly bears).
Germination: best with at least 3 months of cold/moist stratification, so sown outdoors in late fall; it is said that even so the germination may not be very good probably because of the hard seed coats, reason why some recommend scarification of the seeds before sowing.
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