Chamaepericlymenum canadense - Bunchberry

Sizes available: 1 quart

Basics: zones 2-7, 3-5" x 12", part shade, white bracts appear in late spring and surround a center of tiny green flowers which form red berries in the fall, wants consistent moisture and cool, rich, acidic soil.

Common names: Bunchberry, Canada Dwarf-dogwood

Synonyms: Cornus canadensis

Family: Cornaceae

Origin/Distribution: This is a circumpolar species and it occurs from Greenland across northern North America and into northeast Asia. You can find it from Labrador to Alaska, south to Maryland (where it probably isn't to happy), the mountains of Virginia, west to Ohio, Minnesota, South Dakota and the mountains of New Mexico and northern California. It is native to Maine.

Habitat: Mixed deciduous/coniferous woods, damp thickets, swamps, low moist places with some shade

More: Does not like to dry out or get too hot. Foliage turns shades of red in the fall. If too hot or dry will go dormant in the summer, but in the right spot it makes a very pretty woodland ground cover or addition to a shadier rock garden. The berries are edible although the texture and taste is not to everyone's liking. Both the leaves and roots have been used medicinally.

Source: Van Berkum

Image credits: both images Wikimedia Commons