A deciduous shrub up to 6 ft high. Leaves oval or oblong, stout, up to 2 in. or more long, glabrous or more or less downy beneath. Flowers in dense spikes or racemes, both in the leaf-axils near the end of the shoot and at the end itself. Corolla open funnel-shaped, deeply five-lobed, densely hairy inside, 1⁄4 in. long, pinkish; style and stamens slightly protruded, the former glabrous. Fruit dullish white, globose, about 1⁄3 in. wide.
Native mainly of the Rocky Mountains but extending eastwards to Michigan. It has been confused with S. albus, but is an inferior shrub with smaller, duller fruits; it differs also in the deeper-lobed corolla and in the protruded style and stamens. Of little garden value.