Native Ground Covers

Cornus canadensis
BUNCHBERRY

GENERAL:  Low, trailing, rhizomatous perennial, somewhat woody at the base; stems erect, minutely hairy, 5-25 cm tall.

LEAVES:  More or less evergreen, short-stalked, 4-7 in a terminal whorl above 1 (or 2) pairs of leafy bracts on the stem, oval-elliptic, 2-8 cm long, green above, whitish beneath; veins parallel.

FLOWERS:  Small, greenish-white or yellowish to purplish; sepals petals, and stamens 4; inflorescence consists of 4 white to purplish-tinged, petal-like bracts surrounding a central umbel-like cluster.

FRUITS:  Bright-red, fleshy, berry-like drupes, sweet though pulpy.

ECOLOGY:  Moist coniferous and mixed forest and forest openings, meadows, bogs; often growing on tree trunks, logs, stumps in the most maritime forests; valley bottoms to subalpine elevations.

Gaultheria shallon
SALAL

GENERAL:  Creeping to erect; spreads by layering, suckering and sprouting; height very variable (0.2-5 m tall), with hairy, branched stems.

LEAVES:  Alternate, evergreen, leathery, thick, shiny, egg-shaped, 5-10 cm long, sharply and finely toothed.

FLOWERS:  White or pinkish, urn-shaped, 7-10 mm long; 5-15 at branch ends, flower stalks bend so that flowers are all oriented in one direction.

FRUITS:  Reddish-blue to dark-purple 'berries' (actually fleshy sepals), 6-10 mm broad, edible.

ECOLOGY:  Coniferous forests, rocky bluffs, to the seashore; low to medium elevations.

.

Mahonia nervosa
DULL OREGON-GRAPE

GENERAL:  Erect, rhizomatous, evergreen, stiff-branched shrub, to 60 cm tall; leaves like holly; bark and wood yellowish.

LEAVES:  Clustered, long, alternate, turning reddish or purplish in winter, with 9-19 leathery leaflets, somewhat shiny on both surfaces; leaflets oblong to egg-shaped, with several prominent spiny teeth (resembling English holly).

FLOWERS:  Bright yellow, flower parts in 6s; many flowered erect clusters to 20 cm long.

FRUITS:  Blue berries about 1 cm across with few large seeds and a whitish bloom, in elongated clusters, edible.

ECOLOGY:  Dry to fairly moist, open to closed forests at low to middle elevations.