Shepherdia argentea

Plant Characteristics

Habit		shrub
Height:	⇕	12 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 12.
Width:	⇔	12 ft"ft" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 12.
Lifespan:	⌛	perennial

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	sun
Features:	✓	deciduous
USDA Zones:		2 to 9
Flower features:	❀	white

Scientific Names

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Shepherdia argentea (Silver Buffaloberry or Bull berry, thorny buffaloberry) is a species of Shepherdia, native to central North America from southern Canada (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) south in the United States to northern California and New Mexico.

It is a deciduous shrub growing to 2–6 m tall. The leaves are arranged in opposite pairs (rarely alternately arranged), 2–6 cm long, oval with a rounded apex, green with a covering of fine silvery, silky hairs, more thickly silvery below than above. The flowers are pale yellow, with four sepals and no petals. The fruit is a bright red fleshy drupe 5 mm in diameter; it is edible but with a rather bitter taste.

Read about Shepherdia argentea in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Shepherdia argentea, Nutt. (L. argentea, Greene). Buffalo Berry. Upright shrub, or sometimes almost tree-form, reaching 18 ft. tall, thorny, the young growth silvery tomentose: lvs. oblong, cuneate-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, silvery on both sides: fls. yellowish, in dense small fascicles at the nodes: fr. globular or ovoid, about 1/4 in. long, red or yellow, acid, edible. Kans. to Minn., west and north. Buffalo berry (Shepherdia argentea, Nutt. Lepargyrsea argéntea, Greene). Eleagnacese. A shrub 6 to 18 feet in hjght, native from Manitoba and Saskatchewan south to Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, now grown in the upper Mississippi Valley and northward for its abundant acid fruits. The buffalo berry was brought into use early, mention being made in Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture for 1841, page 251, of its being frequently cultivated. It is a handsome ornamental shrub, with silvery foliage and red berries. Occasional plants are found with yellow fruit. The plant is dioecious; therefore, care should be taken, if fruit is desired, to plant both staminate and pistillate plants. Western nurserymen are beginning to offer these two kinds of plants separately in the ratio of one staminate to four pistillate plants, but the best proportion is not yet known. Many persona who plant the buffalo berry are disappointed ?? securing only one sex. The staminate or male plants may be known in their winter condition by the dense clusters of rounded flower-buds; the pistillate or female plants by the smaller, flattened, fewer, more slender flower- buds. The fruit varies greatly in size, quality and season, and is gathered in large quantities for culinary use. It makes a delicious jelly. Some berries are of sprightly flavor, good for eating out of hand. They can also be dried for winter use. The fruit is generally considered better when touched by frost, lees sugar being required. The name is said to have come from the custom of eating the berries as a sauce with buffalo meat in the early days. The buffalo berry makes a fine thorny hedge, that is both useful and ornamental. It is found that sprouts received as dug up in the native thickets from various parts of the Northwest do not always transplant satisfactorily; a year in a nursery row gives them better roots and secures an even stand when set in their permanent place. Seedlings are better rooted. Seedlings are easily raised from seed washed free from the pulp in the fall and stratified for winter, keeping in sand in a box buried just beneath the surface in a well-drained spot in the garden. There should be holes in the box for free drainage and the planting should be done very early in the spring. In Bulletin No. 88, June, 1904, of the South Dakota Experiment Station, Plate 19 shows a field of 7,500 buffalo berry plants of the first generation under cultivation. These plants were raised from seed gathered along the Missouri River of South Dakota, where buffalo berries are especially abundant. However, under cultivation the plant does not respond, as regards early bearing, as quickly as its near relative the Siberian sandthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides). It was found that the buffalo berries can be worked on the Russian form of oleaster (Elxagnus angustifolia). The fault of the buffalo berry is its small-sized fruit and the difficulty of gathering it, owing to its numerous thorns, but it has been and is an abundant source of pleasant fruit to thousands of settlers in the newer regions of the West. The fruit varies greatly in size and degree of acidity, affording opportunity for selection work in its native home along the Missouri River and tributaries. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

A decidious Shrub growing to 4m by 4m at a medium rate.

It is hardy to zone 2 and is not frost tender. It is in flower in March, and the seeds ripen from July to December. The flowers are dioecious (individual flowers are either male or female, but only one sex is to be found on any one plant so both male and female plants must be grown if seed is required)The plant is not self-fertile. It can fix Nitrogen.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils, requires well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires dry or moist soil and can tolerate drought. The plant can tolerate maritime exposure.

Succeeds in an ordinary well-drained moisture retentive soil[1, 3, 11]. Tolerates poor dry soils[200] and maritime exposure[182]. Established plants are drought resistant[182]. A very cold-tolerant plant[229]. Plants rarely produce fruit in Britain[11]. Occasionally cultivated for its edible fruit, there are some named varieties[183]. 'Xanthocarpa' has yellow fruits[200]. The fruit is difficult to harvest because the shrub is very thorny[3]. Plants in this genus are notably resistant to honey fungus[200]. This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby[200]. Dioecious. Male and female plants must be grown if fruit and seed are required.

Propagation

Seed - it must not be allowed to dry out[113]. It is best harvested in the autumn and sown immediately in a cold frame. Stored seed requires 2 - 3 months cold stratification[113]. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots once they are large enough to handle. If sufficient growth is made it will be possible to plant them out in the summer, otherwise grow them on in a cold frame for their first winter and plant them out in the following spring or early summer. Cuttings of half-ripe wood, July/August in a frame sometimes work[113].

Pests and diseases

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Gallery

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References

• Plants for a Future - creative commons text incorporated
• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Shepherdia argentea. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Shepherdia argentea QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)