May Appeal 2026
Please help keep TSO growing!
IDS Trees and Shrubs Online has become a fundamental source of reliable information about cultivated woody plants, freely available to everyone, everywhere. We hope you find it useful.
For the first time we are asking our users if you could support us.
If everyone who uses TSO during May 2026 gives just £10, we would cover our costs for a whole year, enabling us to accelerate our work.
Symphoricarpos microphyllus
Sponsor
Kindly sponsored by
The Normanby Charitable Trust
Credits
Owen Johnson (2021)
Recommended citation
Johnson, O. (2021), 'Symphoricarpos microphyllus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Common Names
- Pink Snowberry
- Mountain Snowberry
- Small-leaved Snowberry
Synonyms
- Symphoricarpos mexicanus K. Koch
- Symphoricarpos glaucescens Kunth
Other taxa in genus
- Symphoricarpos acutus
- Symphoricarpos albus
- Symphoricarpos × chenaultii
- Symphoricarpos Doorenbos Group
- Symphoricarpos guadalupensis
- Symphoricarpos guatemalensis
- Symphoricarpos hesperius
- Symphoricarpos longiflorus
- Symphoricarpos mollis
- Symphoricarpos occidentalis
- Symphoricarpos orbiculatus
- Symphoricarpos oreophilus
- Symphoricarpos palmeri
- Symphoricarpos parishii
- Symphoricarpos rotundifolius
- Symphoricarpos sinensis
- Symphoricarpos 'Snow White'
An erect shrub to 3 m tall. Shoots with curved hairs; older bark scarcely shredding. Leaves 10–25 × 7–15 mm, ovate, with tapered base and an acute or apiculate tip; dark green above, paler beneath and sometimes with short hairs, not lobed or toothed; petiole 1–2 mm. Flowers in August, singly or paired in axils or in a short, terminal, few-flowered spike, pendent, each with 2 bracts. Calyx irregularly 5-toothed, the teeth more or less acute; corolla narrowly bell-shaped to tubular, 9–10 mm long, pink, its lobes equal, ovate and one third the length of the corolla, pubescent inside; stamens 5, slightly longer than the lobes; anthers half the length of the filaments; style glabrous, 4–5 mm long (shorter than the tube); fruit white or pink-tinged, translucent, 7–9 mm wide; nutlets flattened, 3 × 2 mm. (Jones 1940).
Distribution Guatemala In mountains Honduras In mountains Mexico In mountains, from Chihuahua S to Chiapas United States New Mexico
Habitat Slopes in open mountain forests, to 3000 m asl.
USDA Hardiness Zone 9
RHS Hardiness Rating H4
Conservation status Not evaluated (NE)
Symphoricarpos microphyllus is distinct in its small leaves in combination with a tall but neat habit, with many short spreading branches (Jones 1940); the pearl-like, almost translucent and pink-flushed fruit are also distinctive and attractive. It is rather tender, though its traditional zone 9 allocation in the United States probably underestimates its toughness, given enough water through the growing season. The species was in cultivation in France by the start of the 20th century, to serve as one parent of the pink-fruiting S. × chenaultii which has since almost entirely replaced it as a garden plant. The species has survived since 1961 out-of-doors in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 2021) and is represented in the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens from a collection made by Allen Coombes in Veracruz in 1995 (Coombes 236) (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 2021).