Coralberry

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Coralberry

Coralberry

Coralberry winter fruits and buds

Coralberry

Coralberry leaves

Coralberry

Coralberry

Coralberry flowers

Coralberry

Cranberry fruit

Coralberry buds

Coralberry stem

Coralberry leaves

Morphology

Trunk

Erect; bark grayish brown or brown, exfoliating in short flakes; wood white, soft.

Twigs

Brown, flexible, minutely pubescent with short curved hairs; leaf scars crescent-shaped; buds grayish brown, ovoid to ellipsoid, apex obtuse, scales pubescent.

Leaves

Deciduous, opposite, simple; petiole .08 to .2 inch, pubescent; blade elliptic to ovate or nearly round, .6 to 2.5 inches long, .4 to 1.5 inch wide, base wedge-shaped to rounded, margins entire, sometimes irregularly lobed on early leaves, apex acute to obtuse or rounded, minutely apiculate, abaxial surface light green, slightly glaucous, pubescent, adaxial surface green to dark green, not glaucous, glabrous or sparsely pubescent.

Flowers

Spikes, (3-)8-20-flowered, in leaf axils of new growth; peduncles .04 to .12 inch. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; hypanthium ovoid; sepals 5, connate, lobes .02 to .04 inch; petals 5, connate, corolla pink to greenish pink, campanulate, .12 to .16 inch, villous internally, lobes ca. .05 inch; stamens 5, not exserted; pistil 1; style 1, pilose; stigma head-shaped.

Fruit

August to October; drupes, red to pink, nearly globose to ellipsoid, .2 to .28 by .14 to .22 inch diam., smooth, glabrous or sparsely appressed-pubescent distally; stones 2, white, ellipsoid, compressed, smooth.

Ecology

Habitat

Tallgrass prairies, floodplain and upland forests and woodlands, pastures, stream banks, thickets, old fields, fencerows, roadsides, and disturbed sites

Distribution

Occurs statewide

Practical Information

Uses

Deer browse buckbrush, and its fruits and seeds are a food source for pheasants, quail, prairie chickens, and songbirds.

Additional Notes