Shepherdia canadensis (L.) Nutt.

More info for the terms: basal area, frequency, prescribed fire, restoration, tree, wildfire

Following an intense wildfire in Colorado, essentially all aboveground
vegetation in the perimeter died.  The fire was the most intense where
dominated by lodgepole pine, with lower intensities in areas dominated
by subalpine fir and Engelmann spruce.  Russet buffaloberry increased
rapidly following this fire due to sprouting from surviving roots. A
combination of delayed sprouting and seeds originating from outside the
burn was hypothesized to be responsible for an increase in frequency
over the study period.  Three years after the fire, russet buffaloberry
was mainly found on sites with a somewhat lower slope, a higher prefire
tree basal area, and a higher number of prefire tree stems per acre.
These factors appear to be conducive to russet buffaloberry
establishment and growth [3].

The Research Project Summary Vegetation response to restoration treatments
in ponderosa pine-Douglas-fir forests of western Montana provides information
on prescribed fire and postfire response of plant community species, including
russet buffaloberry, that was not available when this species review was written.

russet buffaloberry
buffalo-berry
Canadian buffaloberry
russet red buffaloberry
soapberry
soopolallie

Russet buffaloberry is endangered in Maine [10].

The degree to which russet buffaloberry provides environmental
protection during one or more seasons for wildlife species is as follows
[11]:

                        UT     CO     WY     MT
Elk                    Fair   ----   Fair   Poor
Mule deer              Fair   ----   Good   Fair
White-tailed deer      ----   Good   Fair   ----
Pronghorn              Poor   ----   Poor   ----
Upland game birds      Fair   ----   Good   Good
Waterfowl              Poor   ----   Poor   Poor
Small nongame birds    Good   Fair   Good   Good
Small mammals          Fair   Fair   Good   Fair

More info for the terms: dioecious, monoecious, shrub

Russet buffaloberry is a native, deciduous, nitrogen-fixing shrub
ranging in height from 3 to 13 feet (0.9-3.9 m) [5].  Plants are
generally dioecious but occasionally monoecious [52].  Fruits are
drupelike, ovoid achenes enveloped in a fleshy perianth which turns
yellowish red to bright red when ripe [6,50,54].  Roots have been
variously reported as rhizomatous with relatively deep underground
parts, fibrous and shallow [37], and a taproot with no rhizomes [34].

Russet buffaloberry is found from Nova Scotia, southwest across Maine to
western New York and northern Ohio, west to the Black Hills of South
Dakota and Alaska, avoiding most of the Great Basin.  From Alaska it
follows the Rocky Mountains south to Arizona and New Mexico and extends
east across northern Canada to Newfoundland.  The northern limits are
within the Arctic Circle [6,35,37,50,52,57].

More info for the terms: density, fire regime, fire suppression, seed

Sprouting from surviving root crowns and establishment from seed
transported from off-site allow russet buffaloberry to survive fire
[38].  As fire suppression culminates in closed-canopy, old-growth
forests, fire generally increases russet buffaloberry density and vigor,
although full benefits may not be realized for at least 25 years [37].

FIRE REGIMES :
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find FIRE REGIMES".

More info for the term: density

Low- to moderate-intensity fires may increase vigor and density of
russet buffaloberry in old-growth stands.  Berry production may also be
increased for several years after fire [3,37].

More info on this topic.

More info for the term: phanerophyte

Phanerophyte

More info for the term: tree

Russet buffaloberry is generally found on sandy, gravelly, or rocky
soils, and is able to thrive on nutrient-poor soils due to its
nitrogen-fixing ability [5,57].  Nodulation is variable and appears to
be most abundant in nutrient-poor, sandy soils [37,57].  Russet
buffaloberry grows on shores, riverbanks, dry slopes, moist north
slopes, open rocky woods, and occasionally in calcareous marshes [50].
It forms dense thickets along riparian zones and valley bottoms [37].

In Alaska it is uncommon or locally common in openings and forests of
dry uplands and in aspen forests on old burns [57].  It has been
reported dominating dry, rocky sites in the Mission and Rattlesnake
mountains of Montana [37].  It also dominates the most xerophytic
communities in Banff and Jasper National Parks, Alberta [29], the driest
sites for tree growth in interior Alaska [57], and the drier situations
in the Black Hills of South Dakota [21].  Other sources have described
it as mesophilic and occurring on moist north slopes [3,37].

Elevations have been reported from 4,950 to 5,250 feet (1,500-1,600 m)
in Alberta [46] and 6,600 to 8,200 feet (2,012-2,499 m) in Idaho [43].

More info on this topic.

This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

     1  Jack pine
     5  Balsam fir
    15  Red pine
    16  Aspen
    22  White pine - hemlock
    32  Red spruce
    33  Red spruce - balsam fir
    34  Red spruce - Fraser fir
    35  Paper birch - red spruce - balsam fir
    39  Black ash - American elm - red maple
    42  Bur oak
   107  White spruce
   201  White spruce
   206  Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
   208  Whitebark pine
   210  Interior Douglas-fir
   211  White fir
   212  Western larch
   216  Blue spruce
   217  Aspen
   218  Lodgepole pine
   219  Limber pine
   221  Red alder
   230  Douglas-fir - western hemlock
   236  bur oak
   237  Interior ponderosa pine
   238  Western juniper
   239  Pinyon - juniper
   251  White spruce - aspen

More info on this topic.

This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

More info for the term: shrub

   FRES10  White - red - jack pine
   FRES11  Spruce - fir
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES17  Elm - ash - cottonwood
   FRES19  Aspen - birch
   FRES20  Douglas-fir
   FRES21  Ponderosa pine
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES25  Larch
   FRES26  Lodgepole pine
   FRES28  Western hardwoods
   FRES29  Sagebrush
   FRES34  Chaparral - mountain shrub
   FRES35  Pinyon - juniper
   FRES38  Plains grasslands
   FRES44  Alpine

More info on this topic.

This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the terms: forest, shrub, woodland

   K002  Cedar - hemlock - Douglas-fir forest
   K008  Lodgepole pine - subalpine forest
   K010  Ponderosa shrub forest
   K011  Western ponderosa forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K014  Grand fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest
   K016  Eastern ponderosa forest
   K017  Black Hills pine forest
   K018  Pine - Douglas-fir forest
   K019  Arizona pine forest
   K020  Spruce - fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K021  Southwestern spruce - fir forest
   K023  Juniper - pinyon woodland
   K025  Alder - ash forest
   K037  Mountain mahogany - oak scrub
   K038  Great Basin sagebrush
   K052  Alpine meadows and barren
   K055  Sagebrush steppe
   K056  Wheatgrass - needlegrass shrubsteppe
   K063  Foothills prairie
   K064  Grama - needlegrass - wheatgrass
   K066  Wheatgrass - needlegrass
   K081  Oak savanna
   K093  Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
   K095  Great Lakes pine forest
   K096  Northeastern spruce - fir forest
   K097  Southeastern spruce - fir forest
   K098  Northern floodplain forest
   K107  Northern hardwoods - fir forest
   K108  Northern hardwoods - spruce forest

Severe fires will consume all aboveground leaves and stems of russet
buffaloberry, while light to moderate fires will leave some stems
standing [37].

More info for the term: shrub

Russet buffaloberry provides only fair forage for sheep and poor forage
for cattle and horses [35].  Feral horses in western Alberta used it as
a small part of their diet [47].  Mule deer, white-tailed deer, and elk
use has been rated from fair to good [35,37,59,60], with one Montana
study listing it as a key food source of white-tailed deer [14].
However, in the Black Hills, it was absent from the white-tailed deer
diet for the entire year [24].  Russet buffaloberry provided only 1 to
10 percent of the June to September diet of mule deer in Colorado [59].
Snowshoe hares utilize russet buffaloberry as browse, but it is not
preferred [39,49].  Bighorn sheep use it as a low-preference shrub, with
moderate to heavy use of new growth in early June [51].  Dormant plants
are used in proportions equal to or greater than their availability
[44].

Wildlife use berries more frequently than browse.  Black bears, grizzly
bears, and grouse make substantial use of them in the fall
[33,37,42,55,57].  Berries provide the major food from midsummer until
frost for black bears in the Yukon Territory [32].

More info for the terms: forest, grassland, habitat type, shrubland

Russet buffaloberry occurs in the understory of plant communities.
Dominant overstory species vary by geographic location and include:
subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) in
Montana [37]; spruce (Picea spp.) and fir (Abies spp.) in the northern
and far northern Rocky Mountains [8]; subalpine fir, white spruce (P.
glauca), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), and quaking aspen (Populus
tremuloides) in southern British Columbia [54]; white spruce, lodgepole
pine (Pinus contorta), and quaking aspen in Alberta [29,37]; white
spruce in the Yukon Territory [37]; quaking aspen in interior Alaska
[37,57]; and old-growth lodgepole pine with a mixture of Engelmann
spruce (Picea engelmannii) and subalpine fir in Colorado [1].

Russet buffaloberry occurs as a dominant or subdominant in the following
habitat type (hts) and community type (cts) classification systems:

Area                    Classification          Authority

CO:  Arapaho and        forest hts              Hess and Alexander 1986
      Roosevelt NF       
     White River and    grassland, shrubland,   Hess and Wasser 1982
      Arapaho NF         and forest hts
     Rout NF            forest hts              Hoffman and Alexander 1980
MT                      forest hts              Pfister, Kovalchick,
                                                Arno, and Presby 1977
WY:  Bighorn Mts.       forest hts              Hoffman and Alexander 1976
     Wind River Mts.    forest hts              Reed 1976
Intermountain
Region                  aspen cts               Mueggler 1988

More info for the term: shrub

Shrub

Wildlife managers plant russet buffaloberry for habitat improvement and
watershed management [37].

More info for the term: fruit

Russet buffaloberry browse has one of the highest protein values, but
its low palatability warrants a low food value rating [7,16].  Chemical
analyses indicate a high total sugar content in the browse, which should
make it palatable.  Cyanide, which animals avoid, may be present, but
this has not been verified by chemical analysis [16].  Another problem
may be the phosphorus:calcium ratio.  Less than 1:5 is poor, due to
calcium's inhibition of phosphorus uptake.  Leaves have a 1:6 ratio,
stems have a 1:10 ratio and fruit has a 1:1 ratio.  This makes the fruit
the only palatable portion.  Carotenoids (0.97 percent of the fruit's
dry weight) provide a source of vitamins to wildlife using the berries
[37].

     AK  AZ  CA  CO  ID  ME  MA  MI  MN  MT
     NV  NH  NM  NY  OH  OR  PA  SD  UT  VT
     WA  WI  WY  AB  BC  MB  NB  NF  NT  NS
     ON  PQ  SK  YT

Food:  Native Americans either pressed the berries into cakes, which
were smoked and eaten, or mixed them with water and beat them to make a
frothy dessert [57].

Ornamental:  Plants are occasionally grown for ornamental use [37].

Medicinal:  The Salish and Kootenai tribes boiled debarked branches and
used the solution as an eyewash.  The Sioux boiled the roots, strained
them through cloth and the tea to cure diarrhea [37].

More info for the term: fruit

Palatability of russet buffaloberry browse is considered poor; it is
usually utilized only in the absence of other browse.  It is listed as
unpalatable to both mule deer and white-tailed deer in the Black Hills
[16], and to moose in British Columbia and Wyoming [7,16].  Extensive
use of the berries indicates their high palatability.

The relish and degree of use shown by livestock and wildlife species for
russet buffaloberry in several western states is rated as follows
[7,11,14,16,59]:

                        CO      MT      ND      OR      UT      WY
  Browse
Cattle                 Poor    Poor    Poor    Poor    Poor    Fair
Sheep                  Poor    Fair    Fair    Fair    Fair    Fair
Horses                 Poor    Poor    Poor    Poor    Poor    Fair
Pronghorn              Fair    Fair    Fair    Fair    Poor    Poor
Bighorn                Poor    Poor    Poor    Poor    Poor    Poor
Elk                    Poor    Poor    Poor    Poor    Fair    Fair
Moose                  Poor    Poor    Poor    Poor    Poor    Poor
Mule deer              ----    Poor    Poor    Poor    Good    Fair
White-tailed deer      Poor    Good    Poor    Poor    Fair    Poor

  Fruit
Small mammals          Good    Good    Good    Good    Fair    Good
Small nongame birds    Fair    Fair    Fair    Fair    Fair    Good
Upland game birds      Good    Good    Good    Good    Fair    Fair
Waterfowl              ----    Good    Good    Good    Poor    Poor     
Grizzly bear           ----    Good    ----    ----    ----    Good
Black bear             Good    Good    Good    Good    Good    Good

More info on this topic.

Across its range, russet buffaloberry flowers from April to June, and
the fruits ripen from June to August [37].  In Saskatchewan, anthesis
begins in mid to late April, 3 to 7 days earlier in pistillate plants
than in staminate plants.  Bloom occurs in late April to early May in
Ontario [51] and in Alaska plants bloom in early May following snowmelt
[57].  Fruits mature during July in all three areas.  Shoot elongation was
visible in Saskatchewan from the last week of April, 3 to 5 days after
anthesis, until the end of June.  The majority of growth occurs from
early May until mid-June [20].

The averages of significant phenological dates were reported east and
west of the Continental Divide [48].

           Leaf     Leaves                            
           Buds     Full                    Fruits     Seed        Leaf
           Burst    Grown     Flowering      Ripe      Fall        Drop

East       5/17     6/25      5/14-5/29      7/28    8/05-9/11   9/10-10/01
West       5/19     6/14      5/15-6/03      7/09        -       9/11-10/04

More info for the terms: density, shrub, wildfire

Russet buffaloberry is normally fire resistant but can be eliminated by
fire [34].  As a result it is classified as moderately resistant to
burning [34,38].  Following a Montana wildfire, regrowth of buffaloberry
was slow; 4 to 5 years were required for 25 percent of the eventual
crown size to be obtained [30].  Recurrent, low-intensity ground fires
are closely linked to maintaining russet buffaloberry density and vigor
in stands with lodgepole pine and quaking aspen overstories, and dry
upland meadows where it dominates the shrub layer [37].

More info for the term: shrub

   Tall shrub, adventitious-bud root crown

More info for the terms: scarification, seed, shrubs, stratification

Sexual:  Seed production begins at 4 to 6 years of age, with good seed
crops generally produced every year after that.  The small, hard seed
shows poor, highly erratic, or delayed germination.  Cold
stratification for a minimum of 60 days appears to be a requirement for
embryo development [34,53].  Sulfuric acid scarification for 20 to 30
minutes resulted in 72 to 80 percent germination [53].  Seeds are
disseminated by animals and gravity.

Vegetative:  Sprouts arise from both surviving root crowns and dormant
buds on the taproot [38].  However, russet buffaloberry is not very
aggressive in terms of regeneration.  It had the lowest aggressive
ability of 20 shrubs and trees in Canada [17].
 

More info on this topic.

This species can be found in the following regions of the western United States (according to the Bureau of Land Management classification of Physiographic Regions of the western United States):

    2  Cascade Mountains
    4  Sierra Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    6  Upper Basin and Range
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   12  Colorado Plateau
   13  Rocky Mountain Piedmont
   15  Black Hills Uplift

More info on this topic.

More info for the terms: climax, cover, forest, hardwood, succession

Russet buffaloberry occurs as a dominant with willow (Salix spp.) in the
second stage of succession on glacial moraines between Alaska and the
Yukon Territory [4].  As succession moves from immature forest to
old-growth forest there is a significant decrease in percent cover of
russet buffaloberry [2].  It is also a dominant species in the climax
vegetation of ponderosa pine forests and hardwood climax forests on
alluvial floodplains along major rivers in Montana [45].  Following
fire, russet buffaloberry is found in the first stage of succession (the
seedling/herb stage) which lasts from 1 to 15 years [19], and remains
after the canopy closes [3].

The currently accepted scientific name for russet buffaloberry is
Shepherdia canadensis (L.) Nutt. (Elaeagnaceae). There is one
recognized form which produces only yellow fruit: S. canadensis forma
xanthocarpa Rehd. [58].

More info for the terms: cover, formation

Russet buffaloberry is desirable for revegetating disturbed sites
because it is native, provides food and cover for wildlife, and is a
nitrogen-fixing plant.  Its nitrogen-fixing ability allows it to grow in
soils with low amounts of mineral nitrogen, which are common in
disturbed areas.  It also enhances the growth of associated species by
producing "an island of fertility" around its perimeter [61].

A 1979 survey of all Soil Conservation Service, State Conservationists
indicated only one Southwestern state is currently using russet
buffaloberry for amenity plantings [13].  It naturally invaded two of
six subalpine mine sites in Alberta, being rare at one site and abundant
at the other [46].  It was used as a preferred species for revegetation
of three mining sites in Idaho [43].

Several methods have been tried for propagation of russet buffaloberry.
Vegetative propagation is best accomplished using root cuttings.  Stem
cuttings have been unsuccessful [27].  Transplanting containerized
material has been successful in Ontario [61] and Alaska [9].  Seeds are
very susceptible to greenhouse pathogens and have limited germination
ability [See Regeneration Processes], making root cuttings a better
method of propagating containerized material [9].  Formation of short
suckers allows a gradual increase in the size of the planting [61].
Direct planting of properly scarified seeds may be successful but has
not been reported in the literature.