Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Rosales

Family: Rosaceae -- rose

Common Name: oceanspray

Species Code: HODI

Origin: Native to riparian areas, dry to moist forests, canyons, and shrub thickets of western North America from British Columbia to California and east to Montana and Colorado.

Rare: no

Form: shrub, deciduous, ascending to erect, 1-3 m tall; young stems slender and arching, hairy, ridged, bark grayish-red; older stems with peeling bark; buds purplish-brown, 6 mm long.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: long

Habitat Type: forest, shrub thickets

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: alternate, petiolate, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, truncate to cuneate at the base, mostly 4-7 (10) cm long, green and glabrous to hirsute on the upper surface, paler and pilose to lanate and sometimes glandular on the lower, margins shallowly lobed to coarsely toothed; veins prominent.

Mature height: 3-10 feet

Flowers: borne in a diffuse panicle, pubescent, 10-17 cm long, drooping, the dried cluster remaining on the plant thru the winter; flowers numerous, about 5 mm wide; petals white to cream, oval, 1.5-2 cm long, exceeding the sepals; calyx rotate, deeply 5 lobed, lobes hairly on the outside, 1.5 mm long.

Flower color: white

Bloom: June, July

Bloom starts on: early June

Bloom ends on: late July

Fruit: achene, 2 mm long, light brown, hirsute.

Characteristics:
Reproduces sexually by seed.
5,307,000 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is an achene.
n=18 (Goldblatt 1979).
Young shoots were used for arrow shafts by native peoples. They also had medicinal uses for the plant (Moerman 2003).
Browsing use by livestock and wild ungulates is minor although deer and elk will use it in winter (Roche & Roche 1991).
Probably provides nesting and cover for small animals and birds.
H. discolor is a host for the larva of the pale swallowtail butterfly (Papilo eurymedon), the western or brown elfin (Incisalia iriodes), the spring azure (Celastrina echo) (Pocewicz 2005), and Lorquin’s admiral (Limentis lorquini) (Pyle 2002).

Sun requirement: full sun to partial shade

Soil moisture: mesic

Precipitation: 9-24 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Fire: Regenerates from the crown and from the seed bank within 5-10 years following fire. Often an early seral species on logged or burned over sites (Patterson et al 1985).
Top-killed by fire but crowns survive most fires and re-sprout readily. Full recovery happens in 5-10 years following fire. Seed germination in burnt over areas is minimal. Is often enhanced by fire (Archer 2000).

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: cold moist

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: easy

Seed cleaning: easy

Planting duration: long

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: small

Seed harvest date: October

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: native perennial upland shrub

Propagation:
4 protocols in the Native Plant Network
Glacier National Park, MT, seeds
Glacier National Park, MT, vegetative
Golden Gate National Parks, CA, seeds
Corvallis Oregon Plant Materials Center, seeds

Other propagation information:
4-5 months cold moist stratification in mesh bags between layers of peat (Hudson & Carlson 1998).
Fall seed or 15-18 weeks cold moist stratification at 4-5^oC, then germinate at 20-24^oC. Production of viable seed is generally low. Can be propagated vegetatively with hardwood cuttings collected in late January. Does not propagate well from softwood cuttings (Rose et al 1998).
Sound seed may be as low as 7%. Germination is enhanced by 15-18 weeks cold moist stratification. May be fall sown. Softwood cuttings root with mist and IBA. Hardwood cuttings should be taken in fall and treated with 0.8% IBA and a fungicide. Layers and suckers are also used in propagation (Shaw et al undated).
Reproduces sexually by seed.

Notes: Highly recommended landscape shrub, good form during the growing season and the winter, shade tolerant, old flower clusters may be unattractive (Idaho Native Plant Society 1999).

References:
Antieau, Clayton J. 1987. 1987. Holodiscus discolor. American Nurseryman 166(2):110. July 15, 1987.

Archer, Amy J. 2000. Holodiscus discolor. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2009, October 2].

Goldblatt, Peter. 1979. Miscellaneous Chromosome Counts in Angiosperms, II. Including New Family and Generic Records. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 66:856-861.

Hudson, Shelley, and Michael Carlson. 1998. Propagation of Interior British Columbia Native Plants from Seed. British Columbia Ministry of Forests. Online at http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/mr/Mr093/Mr093.pdf

Idaho Native Plant Society. 1999. Native Plants of Northern Idaho for Landscaping and Restoration. INPS White Pine Chapter. Moscow, ID. Online at http://www.idahonativeplants.org/guides/NorthIdahoGuide.aspx

Moerman, Dan. 2003. Native American Ethnobotany: a Database of Foods, Drugs, Dyes and Fibers of Native American Peoples, Derived from Plants. University of Michigan-Dearborn. Online at http://herb.umd.umich.edu/ Accessed 1/3/07.

Patterson, Patricia A, Kenneth E. Neiman, and Jonalea R. Tonn. 1985. Field Guide to Forest Plants of Northern Idaho. USDA Forest Service Intermountain Research Station. General Technical Report INT-180. Ogden, Utah.

Pocewicz, Amy. 2005. Host Plants of Palouse Butterfly Species. 2 page handout to accompany the April 2005 presentation to the Palouse Prairie Foundation.

Pyle, Robert M. 2002. The Butterflies of Cascadia. The Seattle Audubon Society, Seattle, Washington. 420 pp.

Roche, Ben F., Jr. and Cindy Talbott Roche. 1991. Eastern Washington Range Plants. Extension Bulletin 1302, Washington State University Coop. Extension Service, Pullman WA. 66 pp.

Rose, Robin, Caryn E.C. Chachulski, and Diane L. Haase. 1998. Propagation of Pacific Northwest Native Plants. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, OR.

Shaw, Nancy L. 2004. Holodiscus discolor (Pursh) Maxim: Rosaceae. In: Francis, John K (editor). 2004. Wildland Shrubs of the United States and Its Territories: Thamnic Descriptions: Volume 1. Gen. Tech. Report IITF-GTR-26. USDA, Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and USDA, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO. 839 pp.

Shaw, Nancy L., Emerenciana G. Hurd, and Peter F. Stickney. undated. Holodiscus (K. Koch) Maxim. ocean-spray. In: Bonner, Franklin T., and Rebecca G. Nisley (eds.). Woody Plant Seed Manual. USDA Forest Service. Available online at http://www.nsl.fs.fed.us/wpsm/

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 2 October 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Links:

Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species account from the Fire Effects Information System
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium