An upright, multi-stemmed, rhizomatous deciduous shrub of the western U.S. and Canada, named for its showy, fragrant yellow-to-orange spring flowers. Glossy lobed leaves turn reddish-purple in fall, and the spring bloom gives way to edible black currants by mid to late summer. Tough and adaptable — it tolerates dry to seasonally flooded soils, poor and clay soils, drought, and erosion, and the flowers and fruit feed hummingbirds, butterflies, and birds.

A Pacific Northwest broadleaf evergreen shrub with leathery oval foliage, pink urn-shaped spring flowers, and edible dark-purple berries. Native understory + woodland-edge species across the PNW; among the most iconic Pacific Northwest evergreen shrubs.

A fast, suckering native shrub of streambanks and moist thickets across eastern North America, grown for huge flat-topped cymes of tiny lemon-scented white flowers in early summer and the clusters of dark elderberry drupes that follow. Spreads by root suckers into naturalized colonies 5-12 feet tall and wide; the flowers feed butterflies and the showy fruit feeds birds. The raw berries are not eaten fresh — they are cooked into jelly, pie, and wine.

A suckering, thicket-forming native cherry that reads as a large shrub or small tree across most of North America. Fragrant white flowers open in elongated drooping racemes in spring, followed by dense pendulous clusters of pea-sized cherries that ripen red to dark purple-black in late summer. The astringent fruit is technically edible after processing, and the plant is a workhorse for wildlife — feeding birds and mammals and hosting sphinx-moth larvae.

A large, hairy, clump-forming North American native perennial of wet meadows, low woods, stream banks, and prairies. Its most distinctive feature is the perfoliate foliage — pairs of wrinkled, opposite, lance-shaped leaves whose bases fuse around the hairy stem, so the stem appears to pass through the leaf. From July to September, flat-topped clusters of small, fluffy white flowers feed a wide range of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, while all parts of the plant are toxic and bitter.

A drought-and-flood-tolerant native shrub of eastern North America with brilliant three-season interest — spring white-pink flowers, glossy black antioxidant-rich late-summer berries, and brilliant wine-red fall foliage — plus an extraordinarily wide cold-hardiness range (USDA 3a-8b). The berries are astringent fresh but the basis of a small but growing commercial industry (juices, wines, jams, supplements) for their exceptionally high anthocyanin content. Spreads by suckers; site where colony formation is welcome.