Philadelphus lewisii
Mock Orange

Family: Philadelphaceae (Mock Orange family)

Photo taken at Tumwater Canyon, partially shaded rocky hill

Flowers:

2 to 3 cm wide; sepals 4 to 7 mm; petals 8 to 20 mm, obovate to oblong

Fruit:

capsules woody

Leaves:

blade 2 to 9 cm long, 2 to 4 cm wide; margin entire to toothed, lower surface sparsely strigose

Plant:

woody shrub, 1.5 to 3 meters tall. Wood used to make root digging sticks by the Coeur d'Alene, and Paiute. Wood used to make harpoon shafts, bows, arrows, pipe stems, and root digging sticks by the Okanagan-Colville. Leaves rubbed with wather and used as a soap by the Okanagan-Colville. Bark soaked in warm water and used as a soap by the Shuswap. Both the Shuswap and the Okanagan-Colville used the wood for snowshoes.

Habitat:

hillsides from sagebrush desert to Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir forests

Distribution of species:

British Columbia to California, east to Montana and central Idaho

Distribution of genus:

130 species: temperate and subtropical northern hemisphere