| General Description | A small to medium, upright, multi-stemmed, broadleaved, slow-growing evergreen shrub. Usually tidy and compact, it has occasional erratic growth. Its simple leaves are ovate, alternately arranged, glossy, dark green on top with paler green undersides and are leathery-textured. |
| ID Characteristic | Upright and multi-stemmed with simple leaves that are alternately arranged in horizontal alignment. In summer, these leaves are a thick, glossy, dark green on top with paler undersides. New growth in spring appears from salmon pink to coppery red. Its bell-shaped flowers in the spring are white to pale-pink to bright pink, and give way to rounded berries that start out red but ripen to a blue-black in late summer. |
| Shape | An upright, spreading shrub with a rounded outline and neat habit. It occasionally has erratic growth resulting in some elongated, erect shoots. |
| Landscape | Ideal for restoration/revegetation projects due to its ability to mitigate erosion. Also ideal for natural landscapes as it provides food and shelter for a variety of insects, birds and mammals. It can be used for hedging or screening, providing attractive interest all year long. It is thicket-forming. Finds use in pollinator gardens and woodland gardens. Increases the chance of pollination by planting groups of more than two. |
| Propagation | Seeds are collected midsummer to late autumn and are a yellowish-tan when mature. Seeds do not require pretreatment for germination, but if using stored seeds they will benefit from 60 to 90 days of stratification. Seeds should be sown into slightly acid soil and will germinate approximately 30 days after sowing. The early growth is slow. |
| Cultivation | Ranges from sun (with regular irrigation) to part shade to shade. It produces more berries with moderate sunlight, but greater vegetative growth in shade. It tolerates a variety of soil types, moisture levels and pH levels (3.5 to 7.5) but prefers well-drained soils. |
| Pests | No notable pests or diseases. |
| Notable Specimens | Oregon State Univ. campus, Oregon, United States. Santa Barbara Botanic Garden - Santa Barbara, CA, United States. |
| Habitat | Prominently found in coastal regions in view of salt water. Commonly found along the edges or in the understory of conifer forests, on shady, dry slopes or in cool, mesothermic climates. Can be found in dry or moist redwood forests where it is occasionally epiphytic on redwood trunks. |
| Bark/Stem Description | Bark is thin, smooth and reddish-brown. Stems are reddish in colour. They start out pubescent and are often ridged. The cross section of the twigs is round. |
| Flower/Leaf Bud Description | The buds have overlapping scales that are a bright red colour. |
| Leaf Description | The leaves are simple, persistent, alternately arranged in horizontal alignment. They can be 2 cm to 5 cm long and 8 mm to 12 mm wide. They are ovate to oblong-lanceolate with a rounded base and acute apex. The leaves are a thick, glossy, dark green abaxially and a paler, duller green adaxially with a slightly glandular adaxial surface. |
| Flower Description | White to bright pink, fragrant corollas that are 3 mm to 7.5 mm long. They are 5 lobed and have inferior ovaries with densely pubescent filaments and anthers with long, pore bearing tubes above the pollen sac that are awnless. The corollas form as axillary racemes in clusters of up to 10, appearing in late spring to early summer. |
| Fruit Description | Ovoid or spherical berries that are 4 mm to 7 mm in diameter are formed in showy clusters close to the branches. They start out a bright red in summer, turning a shiny, purplish to bluish black in autumn and persisting into the winter. The berries are edible and reportedly sweeter after the first frost. |
| Colour Description | The bark is a reddish brown, and the stems are a reddish hue. Newly formed leaves are a salmon pink to coppery red, turning a dark green in summer, with a paler, duller green underside often turning a bronze-red in winter. The flowers are white to bright pink and the berries, which start out bright red, turn purplish to bluish black in autumn. |
| Texture Description | It is smooth barked with thick, glossy, leathery feeling leaves that are slightly glandular underneath. |