Canada Buffaloberry / Shepherdia canadensis

OMG, what a mess Flickr is this morning, after all the changes they made!!!I No doubt many of you are experiencing all these new problems, too. What a mess they have made of something that worked just fine!! Great difficulty or impossible to add tags. When something has been done to one of the photos, I can't get back to my photostream - have to close Flickr and open in a new tab, etc., etc.. When I open my photostream in a new tab, the most recent changes have not always been saved. And all those extra tags that Flickr has added to each photo! The tags "pet" and "dog" were added to my photo of a wild Moose suffering from a bad case of tick damage, lol! I always tag all my photos carefully and, with almost 11,000 images on my photostream, there is no way I could ever go through every photo deleting Flickr's inappropriate extra tags!

This macro photo was taken during a walk with birding friends at South Glenmore Park, on 3 May 2015.

"Canadian Buffaloberry, also known as Soopalallie (with many variations on this spelling), is one of the most critical Rocky Mountain plants to learn. Look for a woody shrub, up to 1.5 m (5 ft) in height with dark green, oval leaves. The leaves are approximately 2-6 cm (.75-3.5 in) long, and are dark green above and fuzzy below. They are arranged in an opposite manner. Buffaloberry are somewhat unusual in that there are both male and female plants. The flowers are inconspicuous, looking like small yellow growths that emerge below the new leaves. In late-July or early-August, the berries begin to ripen. Only the female plants will bear fruit. They are round, approximately 4-6 mm (.25 in) in diametre, and vary from bright red to orange (occasionally yellow) They are also somewhat translucent. Buffaloberry can be found throughout the Rockies, but tend to be more common along the eastern slopes.

If you learn to identify only one plant in the Canadian Rockies, make it this one. Once the berries ripen, this becomes the most important plant for bears within the northern Rockies. Any trail with an abundance of buffaloberries will also have bears. Try to avoid heavily berried trails in August and September, or at the very least make a lot of noise while hiking in such locales. Remember, an adult grizzly may eat upwards of 200,000 buffaloberries every day during this period. They may also get so engrossed in feeding that they do not hear you approach. Make sure you make lots of noise." From MountainNature.com.

www.mountainnature.com/Plants/PlantsLatinNameResult.asp?I...

"Fruits are extensively collected by some Canadian First Nations peoples such as Nlaka'pamux (Thompson), St'at'imc (Lillooet) and Secwepemc (Shuswap) in the province of British Columbia. The bitter berries are not eaten directly but rather processed as sxusem ("sxushem", also xoosum/"hooshum") or "Indian ice-cream". Branches bearing fruit are hit with a stick and only the very ripe fruits that fall off are collected. A clean mat or tarpaulin is placed below the bush for collection. The berries are later placed into a great bowl that is absolutely free of oil or fat and are mixed with some sweet fruit such as raspberries. The mixture of berries is crushed and vigorously beaten in the manner of whipping cream in order to raise the typical foam of the confection." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepherdia_canadensis