English: Osoberry; Indian plum.
Genus: 1 species.
Region: Pacific coast, from British Columbia, Canada to Santa Barbara County, California.
Use: fruits are edible; bark for tea; twigs for medicine; straight shoots for primitive arrows; stem for bows; wood is exceptionally strong for small wooden tools, spoons, combs, knitting needles, detail carving.
BotanyShrub; first plants to leaf out and flowers early in the spring; 1to 5 m tall.
Stem: erect; to 5 cm diameter; loosely branched; twigs slender, green turning to reddish brown; pith chambered; conspicuous orange lenticles; bark is smooth, reddish brown to dark gray; sagging branches root readily and separate, surrounded their parent.
Leaves: lance-shaped; 5 to 12 cm long; alternate; simple; deciduous; generally elliptical or oblong; 5 to 13 cm long; light green; smooth above, paler below; margins entire to wavy; fresh foliage smells and tastes like cucumber.
Flowers: dioecious; petals 5; white or whitish-green; pendulous; 1 cm across; flowering late winter
Fruits: ovoid drupes, 2 cm long, like small plums; orange or yellow when young but blue-black when mature; bitter.