Canada Buffaloberry

Shepherdia canadensis

Bird foodPollinator plantNitrogen fixer

Growing it

When	Flowers in May; fruits July to August
Type	shrub
Sun	Full sun, partial shade
Water	Low
Soil	pH 5.5–7.5
Hardiness	zone 2–6
Mature height	2.5 m
Mature spread	2.25 m
Spacing	1.5 m
Years to maturity	5
Bloom	May
In bloom	May
Fruit	Jul–Aug
Native to	AB, SK

egg-shaped leaves about 4 cm long in opposite pairs; a spreading, branching crown

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

365 squares of about 28 km, each holding at least one record. A square is not a claim that the plant grows throughout it, and an unshaded square is unrecorded rather than empty. Darker squares hold more records, which follows roads and towns as much as it follows the plant. 159 herbarium specimens and 1,595 field observations this project may redraw. A filled dot is a pressed sheet somebody can re-examine; a hollow ring is a photograph identified by community agreement. Where the dots are dense is where people have looked, not where the plant is commonest, and empty ground is unsurveyed rather than unoccupied. How this map is made.

Which ecoregions the records fall in

Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 1007 records, high confidence
Northern Continental Divide south AB: 664 records, high confidence
Eastern Continental Ranges central AB: 593 records, high confidence
Western Alberta Upland central AB: 460 records, high confidence
Fescue Grassland south AB: 226 records, high confidence
Boreal Transition central AB / SK: 141 records, high confidence
Cypress Upland south AB / SK: 120 records, high confidence
Mid-Boreal Uplands central AB / SK: 76 records, high confidence
Peace Lowland north AB: 71 records, high confidence
Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 49 records, high confidence
Wabasca Lowland north AB: 26 records, high confidence
Slave River Lowland north AB: 15 records, medium confidence
Western Boreal central AB: 6 records, low confidence
Hay River Lowland north AB: 4 records, low confidence
Northern Alberta Uplands north AB: 3 records, low confidence

These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.

See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.

Documented animals

5 documented relationships.

nectar for

Milbert's Tortoiseshell Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Orange-legged Furrow Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Two-spotted Lady Beetle Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Vespula pensylvanica Specimen records from iNaturalist.org

fruit for

Ruffed Grouse Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Also worth knowing

Safety

Has thorns or prickles; Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety

Edible parts

Fruit

Buying it

About $25–$50 per plant (estimate), usually stocked by garden centres. Estimate (shrub default); AB retail as of 2026