A beautiful member of the huckleberry family of plants, the ornamental coralberry appears in many open wooded areas, sometimes by streams and riverbanks and often where post oak trees thrive. Rather than propagating through seeds, they grow in "colonies" as their roots form nodes under the ground, forming shrubs with arching branches that reach as high as 6 feet.
With its musical-sounding botanical name of Symphoricarpos orbiculatus, coralberry falls under a wide umbrella that encompasses other plants, including the Ardisia crenata. It also goes by the moniker of buckbrush, as well as Indian currant, wolfberry and waxberry. Magenta-hued berries grow in sputnik-like clusters that can be collected in autumn and winter by shaking the branches so they fall onto drop cloths. Their tiny seeds can be extracted by macerating them in water. As a woodland plant, according to Wildflower.org:
"To keep it at a low height, cut it back to knee high every 5 to 10 years. If it gets too leggy, it can be cut back to the ground and it will come back bushier and with more berries the next year."1
Birds love eating them and, as expected,
research has found that a substance in the leaves of this plant, identified as FR900359 (FR), is very effective at preventing bronchial muscles from contracting, with great potential for treating asthma. Asthma is considered a chronic disease from lung inflammation, which narrows airways. Breathing can become difficult and symptoms are often severe and life threatening.
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NIH) advises sufferers to take an active role to control their asthma, in part, by avoiding triggers for long-term control and using quick-relief or "rescue" medicines when necessary.
2 According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 18.4 million adults and 6.2 million children in the U.S. have been diagnosed with asthma.
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