Coralberry

Symphoricarpos orbiculatus

Hills guide picknative · Hill Countrysold locally

Coralberry is a shrub native to the Texas Hill Country that grows 2–3 ft tall and 3 ft wide. It wants full sun or part shade and medium water, and handles clay soil. Blooms white in mid spring. Good for birds.

Will it grow in your yard?

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From our guide

Village of the Hills

Low arching shrub with small leaves and clusters of coral-pink fruit along the stems in fall.

Why it works here

Fills dry shade under trees where almost nothing else will grow, and holds a slope.

Watch out

Spreads by suckers into a colony. Unremarkable in leaf — this is a groundcover role, not a specimen.

The facts

8 sources

Type: Shrub
Sun: Full sun to part shade (3+ hrs)
Water: Medium
Height: 2–3 ft
Spread: 3 ft
Bloom: Mid Spring · white
Foliage: Deciduous
Soil: Takes clay · recorded on loam, moist, rocky, well drained
Deer: Low — deer eat it; cage or plant where they cannot reach. Browsed readily — in fact a preferred winter browse.
Wildlife: Supports birds

Size, sun, water and foliage from the Village of the Hills guide; the rest resolved across sources.

Where it grows

Recorded in these EPA Level IV ecoregions in the Austin and Hill Country launch area:

Balcones CanyonlandsEdwards Plateau WoodlandNorthern Blackland PrairieSouthern Post Oak SavannaFloodplains and Low TerracesSan Antonio Prairie

548 occurrence records in Central Texas (GBIF).

Can you buy it?

Sold at local nurseries. Confirmed in stock at a Central Texas grower in these sizes:

1, 3, 7 gallon

From the growers we read so far — a short list, not the whole trade. Call ahead.