365 Urban Species. #343: Common Snowberry

[urbpan]

Photo by cottonmanifesto.

Urban species #343: Common snowberry Symphoricarpos albus

Clusters of snow white berries on bare stems appear all around you as you walk the path through Olmsted park in Brookline. The berries have been there since late summer, but when the small green leaves dry up and curl away, the stark white fruit seems brighter and much more obvious. Common snowberry is a small shrub native to northern North America, planted in city parks to provide winter interest. Growing wild in the countryside it provides important winter food for ground birds such as wild turkeys. It's large mealy berries are poisonous to mammals, including humans.


A crushed snowberry produces no juice, just a spongy interior. Photo by urbpan

Comments

[neitherday.livejournal.com]

So much for watching what the birds eat to tell what is safe.

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

Woa those look cool! I've never heard nor seen these...;)

You figured it out

[rockbalancer.livejournal.com]

I have been seeing it all over the place lately. The berries remind me of packing pellets.