Shepherdia argentea

Silver buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea)
Scientific name	Shepherdia argentea
Common names	Silver buffaloberry; buffaloberry; thorny buffaloberry; bull berry
Genus	Shepherdia
Family	Elaeagnaceae
Order	Rosales
Native range	British Columbia to Manitoba, south to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma; most common in the northern Great Plains
Habit	Thorny, deciduous, thicket-forming shrub or small tree 3.3–20 ft (1–6 m) tall, with silvery-scaled opposite leaves and nitrogen-fixing root nodules
Fruit	Drupe-like, one-seeded berries about 4–9 mm, mostly reddish-orange, rarely yellow; tart, used for jams, jellies and pies
Propagation	Seed with 60–90 days of cold stratification at 41 °F (5 °C), or direct sowing in early fall
Years to fruit	4–6 years from seed (about 3–4 years for the 'Sakakawea' conservation strain)

Shepherdia argentea — the silver buffaloberry, also called thorny buffaloberry or bull berry — is the accepted name of a thorny, deciduous, nitrogen-fixing shrub or small tree in the oleaster family Elaeagnaceae.^[1][2] It is native from British Columbia to Manitoba and south to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, and is most common in the northern Great Plains.^[2][3] The species is dioecious — male and female flowers stand on separate plants, so a male is required for fruit — and its edible red drupes ripen in late summer and fall for jams, jellies, pies and other processed uses.^[3][4]

Description

The shrub grows 3.3–20 ft (1–6 m) tall with thorny aboveground branches and belowground rhizomes, spreading into thickets; the branches are opposite, with peeling grayish-brown bark, and the opposite leaves are oblong, about 1–2 in (2–5 cm) long and 1/4–3/8 in wide, clothed on both surfaces with silvery scales.^[2][3] Spines can reach about 2 in (5 cm) long.^[4] The roots carry nitrogen-fixing nodules, so the plant grows on poor soil without nitrogen fertilizer.^[3][6]

The flowers are small and yellow, opening in spring before the leaves; male plants are the showier bloomers, while the female flowers are inconspicuous.^[3][4] The fruit is drupe-like, ovoid, one-seeded and about 4–9 mm long (roughly 1/4–1/3 in), with a small, hard, shiny-brown achene inside, and is mostly reddish-orange, rarely yellow. Measured sizes differ among records: about 4–6 mm in the fire-ecology account, about 1/4 in in the plant guide, and 6–9 mm in the Saskatchewan fruit study.^[2][3][5]

Cultivation

The native range is the prairie and parkland country of the Canadian Prairie Provinces and the northern Great Plains, most often along waterways, wet meadows, floodplains and terraces, with drier, gravelly stands farther west; annual precipitation over most of the range runs about 13–23 in.^[3][2]

Soil and water

The plant is at home on most well-drained soils and tolerates non-saline to slightly saline, calcareous (high-pH) ground; it grows on loam, sandy loam, clay loam, clay and gravelly substrates, and tolerates poorly drained soil and some seasonal flooding, but not prolonged flooding or permanently high water tables.^[3][2][4] The species is drought-hardy and, as a nitrogen-fixer, grows on poor soils without added nitrogen.^[3][4] In a controlled pot experiment, two-year-old seedlings held at up to 600 mmol/L sodium chloride for 30 days survived with measurable declines in leaf water potential, chlorophyll and potassium at the higher concentrations, and the authors concluded the species has high salt tolerance; those levels are experimental stress tests, not a soil-salt threshold for gardens.^[7]

Sun and humidity

The plant prefers full sun and tolerates light shade, and in its native range is often found on northwest- to east-facing slopes.^[3][4] The silvery-scaled foliage and open, well-aired habit suit exposed sunny positions, and the species holds up under the low rainfall and strong winds of the high plains.^[4]

Seasonal changes

The shrub follows a temperate four-season rhythm: it flowers in spring (late April in the northern plains), sets fruit from late May, and ripens it by late summer; fully red berries are considered ripe, and ripe or dried fruit can persist on the shrub into the following spring.^[3][2] Regional flowering runs about April–May in California, Nevada, Utah and Saskatchewan, May–June on the Great Plains, and May–July in Wyoming.^[2] The plant is winter-hardy to USDA zone 3; the extension profile lists zones 3a–9b, and the conservation-planting record gives hardiness to about −40 °F (−40 °C).^[3][4][6]

Propagation

Seed is the usual route. The embryo is dormant and germination of raw seed is poor and erratic; cold stratification at 41 °F (5 °C) for 60–90 days lifts germination, with the agency guidance calling for 90 days in damp sand at 41 °F.^[2][3][6] For direct sowing, seed is planted about 1/2 in deep in mid-September; stratified seed can be sown in spring at 30–50 seeds per linear foot of row, covered with 1/4–1/2 in of soil.^[3][6]

In a 40-day greenhouse trial of stratified seed in three substrates, silver buffaloberry germinated 42–54 percent with no statistical difference among a peat-based germination mix, a self-blended native mix and calcined clay; tetrazolium testing of the recovered seed lot found 44 percent germinable, 21.5 percent dormant and a high share of empty seeds (32.6 percent). This is a single-lot, single-season result.^[8][9]

A Colorado nursery produces 2+0 bareroot stock by sowing in late fall (the first to second week of October) with emergence by the second week of May, applying granular ammonium sulfate through both growing seasons and digging around the first of November; grade targets are about 5 mm (3/16 in) root-collar diameter and 46 cm (18 in) height, followed by cold storage for spring shipment.^[10] Seed stored cold and dry can keep viability 11–15 years; seed at 13.1 percent moisture still germinated 97 percent after 3.5 years at 41 °F.^[2] Seed production begins at about 4–6 years of age, with good seed crops generally every 3–4 years.^[2]

The species is difficult to move from its native habitat, and the fire-ecology synthesis notes that root cuttings give the best results for field transplanting; nine-year-old transplants at the Woodward Field Station in Oklahoma reached about 9 ft but were less vigorous than native-range plants.^[2]

Flowering, fruiting, and harvest

The species is dioecious: male and female flowers are produced on separate plants, and both are required for fruit.^[3][4] The flowers are insect-pollinated, most commonly by honey bees and bumble bees.^[3] Regional flowering dates run from April to July depending on location — about April–May in California, Nevada, Utah and Saskatchewan, May–June on the Great Plains, and May–July in Wyoming.^[2]

The berries form from late May and ripen by late summer — roughly July–September on the Great Plains and August–September in Saskatchewan — and are considered ripe when fully red.^[3][2][5] Ripe fruit remains on the shrub, and dried berries may persist into the following spring.^[3]

Fruit is harvested by shaking the branches onto a sheet or flat pan. For jellies, berries picked slightly underripe give higher pectin, and fruit gathered after a light frost is described as sweeter.^[3]

Fruit and uses

The berry is edible but sour when eaten raw and is best known cooked into jams, jellies, pies and sauces.^[4][3] Plains peoples and early settlers preserved the fruit, which was also made into a sauce served with bison meat; buffaloberry wine has recently become commercially available in the United States.^[3][2][11]

Chemical work on wild Great Plains and Saskatchewan fruit shows a tart, very sweet berry: about 21 °Brix soluble solids with about 2.2 percent titratable acidity and 28 percent dry matter, and 209 ± 37 mg ascorbic acid per 100 g fresh weight in the Saskatchewan sample.^[11][5] The red color is carotenoid-based, coming almost entirely from two pigments of similar abundance — lycopene (mean 0.267 g/kg fresh weight, 0.18–0.36 across the sampled selections) and methyl-apo-6'-lycopenoate — with only traces of other carotenoids.^[11] Dried berries are hygroscopic and stay soft like raisins.^[11]

The USDA NRCS plant guide cautions that the berries contain saponin, which can cause irritation of the digestive system, while small amounts can be consumed with little risk.^[3]

One grower in a zone 3B semi-arid, high-wind district reports that buffaloberry is among the hardiest shrubs that establish and grow without much assistance, and that the native thorned fruit bushes are best placed in low-lying, sheltered ground; the same grower had heard that preserves can be made from most of these bushes but had not tried it himself.^[12]

Cultivars and selections

Two named selections are documented in the examined records, plus one cultivar known only as a parent.

'Sakakawea' is a USDA NRCS seed-propagated release from the Bismarck, North Dakota Plant Materials Center, cooperatively released in 1983 with the Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota agricultural experiment stations (some NRCS compilations list 1984). It derives from open-pollinated seed collected in 1954 from the cultivar 'Goldeye' at the Canadian Department of Agriculture research station in Morden, Manitoba. As a seed strain rather than a clonal cultivar, its seedlings segregate male and female, and about 12–20 percent of female plants bear yellow fruit instead of red. The release record describes a large, winter-hardy shrub (to −40 °F (−40 °C)), 12–16 ft tall with a 16–19 ft crown at 15–20 years, surviving 60–95 percent under field conditions, with chiefly red fruit ripening in September at 1/8–1/4 in diameter; solid stands begin fruiting in 3–4 years. It suits deep to moderately deep, fine to moderately fine textured, well- to somewhat poorly drained soil, tolerates moderately saline and high-pH ground, and is not recommended for coarse-textured, extremely saline or droughty sites. Propagation follows the species route: wet-macerate mature fruit collected in September, stratify seed 90 days in damp sand at 41 °F for spring sowing, plant 30–50 seeds per linear foot covered with about 1/4 in of soil, and rejuvenate mature stands by late-winter coppicing to 2–4 in stumps.^[6][3]

'Silver Totem' (epithet 'Totem', trademark SILVER TOTEM) is a female seedling selection discovered in 2008 in a field of buffaloberry at Little Valley Wholesale Nursery in Brighton, Colorado, and promoted through the Plant Select program. It is an upright, columnar plant averaging 8–12 ft tall with strongly ascending branches, silvery-scaled new twigs often tipped with a short thorn, and tiny yellow female flowers blooming on bare stems in spring; because the plant is female only, a male Shepherdia argentea must grow nearby for fruit. When pollinated it bears tart, fleshy, red berry-like fruit for pies, jellies and jams. It is profiled for full sun, moderate to dry/xeric moisture, and loam, sandy, rocky, gravelly or alkaline soils in USDA zones 3–9, with rhizomatous spread and suckering reduced in drier landscapes. The program/nursery record is a first-party description, not a replicated fruit trial, and no independent yield or hardiness comparison was retrieved.^[13]

Denver-area gardeners on a regional forum report the straight species as an early-spring bloomer with attractive silvery foliage, and describe Silver Totem plants appearing in limited numbers at regional nurseries around 2025–2026; these are individual sightings (Harlequin's in Boulder, Echter's near Denver), with one account noting the plant had not been seen for sale before.^[14]

Photos

References

• ↑ [1] GBIF species match: Shepherdia argentea. Accepted status (exact match, confidence 97), family Elaeagnaceae, genus Shepherdia, order Rosales.

• ↑ [2] Esser 1995, Shepherdia argentea, USDA Forest Service Fire Effects Information System. Accepted name and distribution, botanical characteristics, rhizomatous spread and root study, flower and fruit phenology, regeneration, seed dormancy/stratification/storage, site tolerances, transplant difficulty and root-cuttings note.

• ↑ [3] Knudson 2006, Silver Buffaloberry Plant Guide, USDA NRCS Bismarck Plant Materials Center. Description, dioecy and pollination, fruit size and ripening, harvest and pectin guidance, soil/site tolerances, nitrogen fixation, establishment and spacing, propagation, saponin safety note, historical fruit use.

• ↑ [4] NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Silver Buffaloberry. Thorny shrub description, dioecy, flower and fruit morphology, culture, hardiness zones 3a–9b, distribution.

• ↑ [5] Green & Low 2013, \"Physicochemical composition of buffaloberry, chokecherry and sea buckthorn fruit\", Canadian Journal of Plant Science 93(6):1143–1153. Original Saskatchewan fruit study: berry size 6–9 mm, August–September ripening, ripe-when-fully-red, ascorbic acid 209 ± 37 mg/100 g fresh weight, high total titratable acidity.

• ↑ [6] USDA NRCS Bismarck PMC, \"'Sakakawea' Silver Buffaloberry release brochure\" (August 1997, revised June 2013). Cultivar origin from 'Goldeye' at Morden, Manitoba (1954 seed), release 1983, size, hardiness to −40 °F, fruit size and color, field survival, fruiting age, propagation and stratification, soil adaptation, coppicing.

• ↑ [7] Qin et al. 2010, \"NaCl salinity-induced changes in water status, ion contents and photosynthetic properties of Shepherdia argentea seedlings\", Plant, Soil and Environment 56(7):325–332. Original controlled pot study: two-year-old seedlings surviving 600 mmol/L NaCl for 30 days, declines in water potential, chlorophyll and K+ at higher concentrations, high salt tolerance conclusion.

• ↑ [8] Beddes & Kratsch 2009, \"Seed germination of roundleaf buffaloberry and silver buffaloberry in three substrates\", Journal of Environmental Horticulture 27(3):129–133. Original germination experiment: 42–54% silver buffaloberry germination, no substrate difference.

• ↑ [9] Beddes 2008, \"Nursery Production of Selected Actinorhizal Species\", M.S. thesis, Utah State University. Full-text germination trial (42.3–53.7%, P=0.8363, no substrate difference), tetrazolium seed-quality test (44% germinable, 21.5% dormant, 32.6% empty).

• ↑ [10] Grubb 2007, \"Propagation protocol for bareroot silver buffaloberry\", Native Plants Journal 8(3):233. Practitioner bareroot protocol: 2+0 stock, late-fall sowing in Colorado, emergence, ammonium sulfate, November grading (5 mm stem, 46 cm height).

• ↑ [11] Riedl et al. 2013, \"Variation in lycopene and lycopenoates, antioxidant capacity, and fruit quality of buffaloberry\", Journal of Food Science 78(11):C1673–C1679. Original analytical study: soluble solids about 21 °Brix, acidity about 2.2%, dry matter 28%, lycopene and methyl-apo-6'-lycopenoate as main carotenoids, hygroscopic dried berries, commercial wine note.

• ↑ [12] Reddit r/NativePlantGardening thread 1fj1koh. Attributed zone 3B grower report (u/LastJava, ~2024): buffaloberry among the hardiest shrubs in low-rainfall, wind-exposed sites; preserves mention explicitly hearsay.

• ↑ [13] Plant Select: SILVER TOTEM Buffaloberry cultivar story. First-party record of the 'Totem' seedling selection (discovered 2008, Little Valley Wholesale Nursery, Brighton, CO): columnar form, female flowers, zones 3–9, dry/xeric culture, rhizomatous root notes.

• ↑ [14] Reddit r/DenverGardener thread 1kmotqy. Attributed Front Range reports (~2025): early-spring bloomer and nitrogen-fixer praise, Silver Totem nursery availability sightings at Harlequin's and Echter's.

Image credits

• Shepherdia argentea — Matt Lavin 001.jpg — habit of silver buffaloberry in a profusely fruiting stand at Missouri River Headwaters State Park, Montana, September 2012: Matt Lavin, file page, CC BY-SA 2.0 (attribution and share-alike required).

• SilverBuffaloberry-SK..jpg — silver buffaloberry plant at Chief Whitecap Park near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, September 2007: SriMesh (Julia Adamson), file page, CC BY-SA 3.0 (attribution and share-alike required).

• YellowOrangeBuffaloberrySK.JPG — silver buffaloberry fruit showing orange-yellow color, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, October 2009: SriMesh (Julia Adamson), file page, CC BY-SA 3.0 (attribution and share-alike required).

• Shepherdia argentea 2017-05-23 0874.jpg — cultivated silver buffaloberry at the Botanischer Garten Berlin, May 2017: Salicyna, file page, CC BY-SA 4.0 (attribution and share-alike required).

• Shepherdia argentea USDA.jpg — silver buffaloberry plant: USDA NRCS, file page, public domain (PD USDA NRCS, no attribution required).