Spring is surely here and it appears that everything is in bloom at once. A standout in the display garden is Western Sand Cherry. This mid-size shrub is native mainly to the N. Great Plains, with disjunct populations in S. Oregon and N. Utah. After the lush spring bloom it goes on to produce small, edible and reasonably tasty cherries. The fruit was used extensively by native peoples and early European settlers.
It is truly a tough little plant which, according to one source, “survives temperatures to -40°F, prolonged summer drought and the poor, sandy or rocky soils that characterize the loess hills, sandhills and rocky bluffs of the central Great Plains.”