Highbush Cranberry

Viburnum opulus

Hosts 5 caterpillarsBird foodPollinator plant

Growing it

When	Flowers May to June; fruits August to October
Type	shrub
Sun	Full sun, partial shade
Water	Medium, high
Soil	pH 5.5–7.5
Hardiness	zone 2–7
Mature height	3.5 m
Mature spread	3 m
Spacing	2 m
Years to maturity	4
Bloom	May–Jun
Flower colour	White read from a published flora
In bloom	May June
Fruit	Aug–Oct
Native to	AB, SK

lobed leaves about 10 cm long in opposite pairs; several stems from the base

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

107 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. 5 herbarium specimens and 379 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: 534 records, high confidence
Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 84 records, high confidence
Boreal Transition central AB / SK: 62 records, high confidence
Fescue Grassland south AB: 20 records, high confidence
Mid-Boreal Uplands central AB / SK: 18 records, medium confidence
Cypress Upland south AB / SK: 6 records, low confidence
Wabasca Lowland 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

20 documented relationships.

nectar for

Andrena crataegi Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Bald-faced Hornet Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Eight-spotted Forester Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Evodinus monticola Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Great Golden Digger Wasp Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Halictus farinosus Specimen records from ecdysis.org
Monarch Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Silver-spotted Skipper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Temnostoma alternans Specimen records from iNaturalist.org

fruit for

American Robin Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Bohemian Waxwing Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Cedar Waxwing Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Pine Grosbeak Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Ruffed Grouse Cornell Lab of Ornithology

caterpillar host for

Anania tertialis Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Herpetogramma abdominalis Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Herpetogramma thestealis Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Little White Lichen Moth Specimen records from scan-bugs.org
Spring Azure Acorn & Sheldon 2006

pollen for

Andrena candida Guzman et al. 2022

Also worth knowing

Safety

Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety

Edible parts

Fruit

Buying it

About $25–$50 per plant (estimate), sometimes in big-box garden sections. Estimate (shrub default); AB retail as of 2026

Where these numbers came from

Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate