Indian Plum

Day 141: Indian Plum (Oemleria cerasiformis) bears a panicle of yellowish-white trumpet-shaped flowers in early spring, often emerging before the leaves. The flowers are followed by an edible but insipid blue-black berry. This less-than-appealing fruit was eaten by Native peoples mixed with the fat rendered from eulachon, a small fish resembling a smelt. Such fare gave rise to a pioneer staple called pemmican.

This shrub is also known as Osoberry, "oso" being the Spanish word for "bear." The popular terminology generates some understandable confusion with a ground-cover plant called kinnikinick which also goes by the common name of "bearberry." The nomenclature makes no difference to the bears who are content to eat either fruit.