• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Before Header

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Friends of Kananaskis Country

Enhance, protect and share the unique natural and cultural experiences of Kananaskis Country through public participation and environmental education.

Header Right

Donate Join Us Volunteer-Events Calendar
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Vision and Mission
    • The Team
    • The Advisory Council
    • Thanks Volunteers
  • About K-Country
    • Kananaskis Country
    • Trail Maps
    • Trail Reports
    • Bite-Sized Advice
    • Trail & Camping Info
    • Kananaskis Conservation Pass
    • Critters of K-Country
    • Flowers of K-Country
    • Plants of K-Country
    • Fungi of K-Country
  • Programs + Events
    • Trail Care
      • Recruiting Crew Leaders & Backcountry Crew
      • Migratory Birds and the Friends
    • Canmore Trail Alliance
    • Trails Fest
    • Environmental Education
    • Chandra Crawford Hut at CNC
  • Engage
    • Sign Up and Join Us
    • Volunteer
      • Volunteer Projects
    • Corporate & Group Trail Days
    • Trail Day – What to Bring & Expect
    • Volunteer Agreement, Release and Waiver of Liability Form
    • Trail Groups and Clubs
  • Library
    • Latest News
    • Annual Reports
    • Great Kananaskis Flood Book
    • Bylaws & Cooperating Agreement
    • Newsletter
      • 2020 Newsletter Archive
      • 2019 Newsletter Archive
      • 2018 Newsletter Archive
      • 2017 Newsletter Archive
      • 2016 Newsletter Archive
      • 2015 Newsletter Archive
      • 2014 Newsletter Archive
      • 2013 Newsletter Archive
      • 2012 Newsletter Archive
      • 1997 – 2008 Newsletter Archive
    • Policies
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Legacy Fund
      • Legacy Fund FAQs
    • Planned Giving
    • Trail Love Give Back
    • SkipTheDepot
    • Our Supporters
    • Thanks
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Vision and Mission
    • The Team
    • The Advisory Council
    • Thanks Volunteers
  • About K-Country
    • Kananaskis Country
    • Trail Maps
    • Trail Reports
    • Bite-Sized Advice
    • Trail & Camping Info
    • Kananaskis Conservation Pass
    • Critters of K-Country
    • Flowers of K-Country
    • Plants of K-Country
    • Fungi of K-Country
  • Programs + Events
    • Trail Care
      • Recruiting Crew Leaders & Backcountry Crew
      • Migratory Birds and the Friends
    • Canmore Trail Alliance
    • Trails Fest
    • Environmental Education
    • Chandra Crawford Hut at CNC
  • Engage
    • Sign Up and Join Us
    • Volunteer
      • Volunteer Projects
    • Corporate & Group Trail Days
    • Trail Day – What to Bring & Expect
    • Volunteer Agreement, Release and Waiver of Liability Form
    • Trail Groups and Clubs
  • Library
    • Latest News
    • Annual Reports
    • Great Kananaskis Flood Book
    • Bylaws & Cooperating Agreement
    • Newsletter
      • 2020 Newsletter Archive
      • 2019 Newsletter Archive
      • 2018 Newsletter Archive
      • 2017 Newsletter Archive
      • 2016 Newsletter Archive
      • 2015 Newsletter Archive
      • 2014 Newsletter Archive
      • 2013 Newsletter Archive
      • 2012 Newsletter Archive
      • 1997 – 2008 Newsletter Archive
    • Policies
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Legacy Fund
      • Legacy Fund FAQs
    • Planned Giving
    • Trail Love Give Back
    • SkipTheDepot
    • Our Supporters
    • Thanks
  • Contact

Bunchberry

Bunchberry in flower

One of the smaller plants in K-Country that’s literally everywhere is awesome no matter what season you see it in. Our favourite is in the fall when its leaves turn red and add to the ground cover colour in the forest, plus has fun red berries as well, which is where it gets its common name.

Bunchberry (cornus canadensus) is also known as Dwarf Dogwood, and is of the genus Cornus like the much larger (and also fruit bearing) Red Osier Dogwood, which is far better known. It’s extremely common in almost all cool, moist, coniferous woods, and is not just found in Canada but also in eastern Asia (Japan, Korea, northeastern China and the Russian Far East), the northern United States, Colorado, New Mexico and Greenland. Depending on where you are in the world, it’s also called bunchberry dogwood, Canadian dwarf cornel, pigeonberry, squirrelberry, low cornel, ground dogwood, bunchplum, creeping dogwood, cuckoo-plum, frothberry, dogberry, puddingberry, crowberry and crackerberry.

It starts its summer growing in mats with a pretty little white flower that reminds us of trilliums in Ontario – except the flower is not what you think. Those big white petals are actually bracts, or specialty leaves, surrounding the tiny greenish-white flower within.

These little flowers feature an explosive pollination system; when insects like bees land on the flowers, tiny hairs trigger the petals to open and fling out the pollen. According to Wikipedia:
This motion takes place in less than half a millisecond and the pollen experiences two to three thousand times the force of gravity. The Bunchberry has one of the fastest plant actions found so far requiring a camera capable of shooting 10,000 frames per second to catch the action.

Once pollinated, those flowers eventually turn into clusters of little red berries very noticeable in the fall, further adding to the forest floor colour. The berries are food for grouse and other birds and small mammals all winter, butterflies like the flowers, and deer and moose eat the plant (with or without berries) all year round.

For us humans, the berries are edible but bland; the crunchy poppy-like seeds inside are reportedly enjoyable. They have pectin in them, and are sometimes added to jam for colour and to help it jelly. Inuit gather and freeze the berries, or store them in bear fat to eat over the winter. 

A Nootka legend has it that a jealous husband marooned a woman in a cedar tree, and the berries are the drops of her blood.

Read about some other flowering plants of Kananaskis Country here!

Bunchberry Flower

Footer

Contact Us

email: info@kananaskis.org
Phone: 403.678.5593
Mail Address:
Suite 201, 800 Railway Ave.
Canmore, Alberta
T1W 1P1

Search Website

You can also find us on

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Donate Join Us Volunteer Calendar

Copyright © 2023 · developed by Artmann Comm on Genesis Framework