Actaea rubra

Bearberry

Family: Ranunculaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Bearberry is a California native perennial found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, San Francisco Bay Area, southern coastal ranges, and San Bernardino Mountains in deep soils of mixed-evergreen and conifer forests at elevations below 2,800 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces white flowers with delicate white petals and sepals, arranged in small clusters. Growing 20 to 100 centimeters tall with few-branched stems that are sparsely hairy, it develops a distinctive multi-lobed leaf structure. Its complex leaves are divided into 2 to 3 ternate sections with leaflets 2 to 9 centimeters long, featuring toothed edges and varying shapes from lanceolate to widely ovate. The fruit develops as a shiny red or white berry 5 to 10 millimeters long, adding visual interest to the plant's woodland habitat.

Habitat: Deep soils, moist, open to shaded sites, mixed-evergreen or conifer forests

Bloom period: May-Sep

Elevation: < 2800 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, SN (exc Teh), SnFrB, SCoRO, SnBr

California counties: Humboldt, Alameda, San Bernardino, Inyo, Fresno, Tulare, El Dorado, Mendocino, Mono, Modoc, Butte, Calaveras, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Glenn, Lassen, Marin, Mariposa, Nevada, Sierra, Monterey, Plumas, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou, Sonoma, Trinity, Tuolumne, Placer, Sacramento, Colusa, Tehama, Alpine, Napa, Lake, Shasta, Madera

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.