Description & Range

PNW Native

Ranges from Central Alaska to Northern California and inland to Idaho

Salmonberry is a dense thicket-forming erect shrub that grows in height up to 4 m / 12 ft. Bark ranges from red-brown to yellowish with younger shoots remaining green without tough bark. Younger stems have thorns that often slough off with maturity. Leaves are ternately compound, alternate, sharply toothed, and deciduous. Flowers are magenta with 5 petals, and berries are raspberry-like ranging in color from pale yellow to vivid scarlet, often a salmon-y orange. Berries are highly palatable and prized in the region. (All 3) 

Ecology

Salmonberries, which ripen in early summer, are remarkably important and highly prized by wildlife. The flowers which bloom in spring are used as nectar by butterflies, bees, other insects, and hummingbirds. Twigs, shoots, and leaves are eaten as browse by herbivorous mammals like rabbits, elk, and deer. The berries are prized by bears, mammals, songbirds, and humans. Salmonberry forms dense thickets that provide excellent habitat for birds and small mammals to hide from predators and is used as nesting ground by songbirds. (S)

Salmonberries spread viciously through its robust rhizomes and aggressively sending up new shoots each year. Salmonberry thickets can be so dense that they crowd out other trees for centuries. The tangle of rhizomes under the soil can be so dense that seedlings are indefinitely crowded out. Salmonberry understorey that grows under a red alder forest early in ecological succession can outlast the red alders and take over the ecosystem when they fall. Therefore, despite being a native species, salmonberry can act similarly to invasive plants. (DM)

Salmonberry thrives in moist and soggy soils and will rapidly colonize streamsides.

Equity: Cultural and Historical Significance

Salmonberries were prized for their flavor but were too soft to preserve by drying. Salmonberries are the first local berries to ripen and their vibrant color contrasts with the end of the gloomy spring season in which they ripen. Northwest coast people relied on salmonberries as an important food source and ate both the berries and the shoots. Massive quantities of berries were eaten at feasts and served with seal oil or candlefish grease. In modern times, salmonberries are made into jams and preserves, canned, or frozen.
Salmonberry sprouts are harvested before the shoots become woody and are still fresh and green, from April through early June. Shoots are either peeled and eaten raw or steamed or boiled. Sprouts were also tied into large bundles and pit-cooked with candlefish grease or seal oil as a side-dish served alongside dried meat or salmon. 
The Kaigani Haida used salmonberry leaves to line baskets, cover food when cooking, and wipe clean fish. The Makah dry out peeled salmonberry branches, remove the pith, and use the branch as a pipe stem. The Makah also use the bark, dried and pounded, to ease toothaches or as topical pain relief for infected wounds. The Quileute use a piece of salmonberry wood as a stopper for their seal floats used in whaling, and they use chewed leaves as a burn treatment due to the astringent nature of salmonberry leaves. They also boil bark with seawater, which is used as a rinse for infected wounds and burns and as a tonic to ease labor pains. (S)

Like other plant foods, a salmonberry thicket could be owned by a family or individual and returned to year-after-year. The Nuu-chah-nulth system had owners of their salmonberry patch collect enough to throw a grand feast before allowing all in the tribe to harvest from the patch. (DM) Salmonberries were tied to salmon in Northwest Coast cultures. The two were often eaten together as the astringent shoots or tart yet mild berries would cut the rich grease of the salmon. The words for spring and the month we know as May in many Coast Salish languages are named after the salmonberry. Swainson's thrush was known to many tribes as the salmonberry bird, and its song was associated with the ripening of salmonberries in spring. Salmonberry harvests were also used as a predictor of salmon runs later in the year. (LC)

Economics

Salmonberry is widely used as a restoration planting in wetland and riparian environments due to its easy transplantation, ability to thrive on disturbed and eroded sites, and soil stabilizing properties. (S)

Salmonberry was thought to be a better restoration planting than it has ended up being due to its vicious rhizomatic spread. Local laws require logging operations to preserve ecosystems along streams to create streamside buffers promoting native biodiversity, but when salmonberry thickets take over, biodiversity is reduced and other native species are crowded out. Salmonberry will rapidly colonize recently disturbed sites, clear cuts, and burns. (DM)