Montana Field Guide

Shrub 3-6 m tall; previous year's twigs medium to dark brown; branchlets (current growth) thinly pubescent; thorns stout, 2-4 cm long, shiny deep brown when young, recurved. Petioles 1-2 cm long, thinly pubescent, eglandular or with small black glands when young; blades 3.5-6 cm long, ovate to ovate-rhombic, or less commonly broadly elliptic to narrowly ovate, with 3-4 sharp lobes per side, margins finely doubly toothed, 4-5 veins per side, somewhat impressed above, densely appressed hairy above when young but abrading with age, the pubescence principally on the veins beneath, somewhat coreaceous, glossy above especially when young, expanding leaves reddish, the fall color bronze. Inflorescence a domed panicle, 10-20 flowered, the branches variably villous, gland-dotted, with caducous linear, gland-margined bracteoles. Flower diameter 12-15 mm, notably cup-shaped when young; hypanthium externally villous only at base or completely glabrous; calyx lobes narrowly triangular, 3-4 mm long, the margins glandular, abaxially with a few hairs; petals more or less circular, white; stamens 10, anhters ivory or occasionally very pale pink; carpels and styles 2-3(-4). Fruit 8 mm in diameter, generally flask-shaped, glabrous, red when young but later burgundy to deep purple (occasionally almost black), when in good condition with strikingly lnog erecto-patent calyx lobes but these sometimes shorter or reflexed; nutlets 2-3, dorsally sulcate, sides flat, a little plump, or shallowly eroded (Phipps and O'Kennon, 1998, Sida 18: 169-191).

The original authors (Phipps and O'Kennon 1998) did not comment on habitat types.

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 auricomus, Bombus melanopygus, Bombus mixtus, Bombus nevadensis, Bombus pensylvanicus, Bombus bimaculatus, Bombus griseocollis, and Bombus impatiens (Macior 1968, Thorp et al. 1983, Colla and Dumesh 2010).