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Silverberry

Shrub type: Deciduous (Stores water in its stem)

This small shrub grows up to 1 foot (30.5 cm) tall and lives for around 16 years. It is somewhat resistant to disease and destructive insect infestation.

It has dozens of knobbly, wavy stems covered in hard, knobbly, silver and white bark, and the wood inside is black with white speckles.

The branches are short, rigid and upright with hundreds of twigs that and are covered with small bunches of small, broad, flat, leaves with jagged edges. The leaves themselves are pastel red and red, rigid and covered in fine hairs.

In late summer it produces many small, light brown blossoms with 8 pointed petals with a trumpet-shaped floral cup. They are sturdy and have an intensely strong scent that smells like varnish.

In early autumn small long, straight fruits ripen. The clammy caramel skin is thick and bitter and salty, and the soft brown flesh is spicy and savoury and powdery. The hazel seed is tiny and sits at the end of the fruit.

Their seeds have hallucinogenic properties.
It coexists peacefully with other plants.
It is suitable for making paper