The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Physocarpus capitatus
Pacific ninebark is a dense deciduous shrub of western North America, growing 1 to 2.5 metres tall, with maple-like leaves and peeling bark. It thrives in moist soil and tolerates a range of light conditions, making it a useful native for wet sites and restoration.
Physocarpus capitatus, commonly called Pacific ninebark or tall ninebark, is a species of Physocarpus in the rose family native to western North America.
It is found at low and middle elevations in southern Alaska east to Montana and Utah, and south to southern California. It is most common west of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada, often abundant on the north slopes of coastal mountains. It is less prevalent in the east of its range, where it overlaps with that of the mallow ninebark.
Pacific ninebark was used as an emetic and a laxative by indigenous groups. The stems were used to make children's hunting bows and small items such as needles; straighter shoots were used to make arrows. The bark was mixed with cedar bark to make a dark brown dye.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Physocarpus capitatus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
