Montana Field Guide

Stems ascending to sprawling, 0.5–1.5 m with 1 to 4 straight to curved nodal spines. Twigs puberulent, often bristly, yellow becoming gray. Leaf blades 1–3 cm wide, cordate, 3- to 5-lobed, deeply crenate, pubescent, often glandular beneath. Inflorescence of 1 to 3 flowers, drooping, shorter than the leaves. Flowers obconic, green to white, 7–10 mm long, glabrous; calyx lobes oblong, 3–5 mm long; petals 2–3 mm long, white to pink; stamens ca. as long as the petals; styles united ca. half the length. Berry purple, 8–12 mm long, glabrous, edible. Lesica (2012) treats this species more narrowly than some authors (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Woodlands, thickets along streams; plains (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

POLLINATORS
The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap: Bombus vagans, Bombus bifarius, Bombus centralis, Bombus fervidus, Bombus flavifrons, Bombus huntii, Bombus melanopygus, Bombus mixtus, Bombus nevadensis, Bombus terricola, Bombus sitkensis, Bombus occidentalis, Bombus pensylvanicus, Bombus bimaculatus, Bombus impatiens, Bombus insularis, and Bombus flavidus (Plath 1934, Thorp et al. 1983, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Koch et al. 2012, Williams et al. 2014).