Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Rosales

Family: Rosaceae -- rose

Variety: no infraspecific taxa are recognized

Common Name: ninebark, mallow ninebark

Species Code: PHMA5

Origin: Widely scattered in grasslands and canyons to common in Douglas fir and ponderosa pine forests east of the Cascade Mountains from southern British Columbia to Oregon and east to Alberta, Montana, and Wyoming.

Rare: no

Form: shrub, deciduous, 0.5-2 m tall; branches arching to erect, glabrous to minutely stellate, angled; bark brown to grey, becoming papery and shredding with age.

Mature height: 2-6 feet

Duration: perennial

Longevity: long-lived

Habitat Type: canyon grassland, prairie, shrub thickets, forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: alternate, petiolate, ovate to cordate, 4-7 cm long, with 3-5 palmate lobes, the lobes incised to biserrate, glabrous or sparsely stellate and dark green above, paler and copiously stellate below.

Flowers: numerous, borne in a terminal corymb; calyx 5 lobed, finely stellate, lobes lanceolate, about 3 mm long, reflexed; corolla white, rotate; petals 5, suborbicular, 4 mm long; pistils usually 2, stamens about 30, exceeding the petals.

Flower color: white

Bloom: May, June, into July in the mountains

Bloom starts on: mid May

Bloom ends on: late June

Fruit: 2 follicles joined at the base, 7-11 mm long, inflated; seeds 2.3-2.8 mm long, pale, smooth, shiny.

Characteristics:
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.
Opulaster pauciflorus in Piper & Beattie 1914.
753,000 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Plants Database 2009).
750,000 seed/lb (Link 1993).
750,000-756,000 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
Perennating organ is a rhizome.
n=9 (University of British Columbia 2003).
Flowers are perfect.
Fruit is a follicle.
Sheep browse the plants (St. John 1963). Rocky Mountain elk make minor use of the plants (Kufeld 1973). Use by other livestock and wildlife is low.

Sun requirement: full sun to partial shade

Soil moisture: mesic

Precipitation: 17-40 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Fire:
Rhizomes are mainly in mineral soil and survive most fires. Regrows vigorously and increases cover following fire (Habeck 1992).
Easily killed by hotter fires. Sprouts from the root crown following low severity fires (Crane & Fischer 1986).

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: cold moist

Seed yield: high, but percent sound seed may be low

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: no information available

Seed cleaning: medium difficulty

Planting duration: long

Seed insect problem: no information available

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: small

Seed harvest date: August, September

Seed comments: can be stored at least 5 years (Link 1993)

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

Keywords: native perennial upland shrub

Propagation:
Stratify 4 months in mesh bag between layers of peat (Hudson & Carlson 1998).
Sow seed in fall or spring. Germinates readily. Also can be propagated from root cuttings (Kingery et al 2003).
Propagate from cuttings or from fall sown seed (Parish et al 1996).
Seed stores 5 years at room temp. Needs 30 days cold moist stratification or sow in fall. Germination usually low (Rose et al 1998).
Seed ripens indeterminately and amount of sound seed may be low. Seed needs 30 days of cold moist stratification or fall planting (Link 1993).
Can probably be propagated by softwood cuttings under mist or from hardwood cuttings.
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.

Notes:
An excellent landscape shrub which flowers every year in mid-spring (Idaho Native Plant Society 1999).

References:
Crane, M.F., and William C. Fischer. 1986. Fire Ecology of the Forest Habitat Types of Central Idaho. UDSA Forest Service Intermountain Research Station General Technical Report INT-218.

Francis, John K. (ed.). 2004. Wildland Shrubs of the United States and Its Territories: Thamnic Descriptions: Volume 1. Gen. Tech. Report 11TF-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.

Habeck, R. J. 1992. Physocarpus malvaceus. 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 December 28].

Hassell, Wendell, W. Rocky Beavers, Steve Ouellette, and Thomas Mitchell. 1996. Seeding Rate Statistics for Native and Introduced Species. US Department of Interior and US Department of Agriculture, NRCS. Denver, CO.

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

Kingery, James, Angela Cotter, and Kendra Moseley. 2003. Idaho Roadside Revegetation Handbook. Prepared for: Idaho Transportation Department. Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management, University of Idaho. Online at http://h237-41.state.id.us/highways/ops/maintenance/Manuals/fullVegetationManual.pdf

Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.

Link, Ellen (ed.). 1993. Native Plant Propagation Techniques for National Parks Interim Guide. USDA, NRCS, Rose Lake Plant Materials Center. East Lansing, MI.

Parish, Roberta, Ray Coupe, and Dennis Lloyd. 1996. Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia. Lone Pine Publishing. Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Press of the New Era Printing Company, Lancaster, PA. 296 pp.

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

St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Accessed 9/1/09 online at http://www.bcflora.org/

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 8 December 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Youngblood, Andrew, John D. Gill, and Franz L. Pogge. undated. Physocarpus (Camb.) Raf. ninebark. 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/

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