Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Squashberry is rated fire resistant, though the support comes from regional planting guidance rather than one shared scoring system.
All five sources recommend squashberry for fire-resistant or Firewise landscaping. FireSmart BC’s fire-resistant approval for squashberry carries a flag that more research is needed. King County’s forestry program includes it among fire-resistant shrubs. Low-growing, low-debris, and relatively moist are Fremont County’s general descriptions of its Firewise plants; squashberry appears among its recommended shrubs. Alaska’s forestry program says Viburnum edule may be used in Firewise landscapes when placed and maintained appropriately, and NFPA Firewise Communities includes it among fire-resistive landscaping plants.
The agreement is broad geographically, spanning British Columbia, western Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, and South Dakota, but the sources are compiled or expert-curated recommendations. Their categories do not provide a common comparative score. FireSmart BC’s research flag is therefore a meaningful caution, not a contrary verdict.
Squashberry is a shrub in the Viburnaceae family, about two feet tall at maturity, native across northern and parts of western and northeastern North America, and hardy to USDA zone 1a. For a homeowner choosing among plants, the fair conclusion is that squashberry has consistent support as a fire-resistant landscaping option, with appropriate placement and maintenance still part of that judgment.
Form
shrub
Mature height
~2 ft
Rated in
Alaska; Black Hills, South Dakota; British Columbia; Fremont County, Wyoming +1
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Alaska Division of Forestry opens with the wildfire threat to Alaskans and publishes Alaska firewise-landscape examples. FireApproved publishes 58 exact source owners from its 60 taxon entries and holds the taxon-free fern label. State publication scope does not establish suitability for every Alaska climate, site, or home-ignition-zone placement.
Black Hills (SD footprint); partial normalized coverage
The page explicitly limits itself to the Black Hills, and NFPA Firewise's archived 2006 plant-list index files it under South Dakota. FireApproved publishes 47 exact genus or species owners from 48 printed rows. This is bounded Black Hills context, not statewide South Dakota coverage or a finding that a plant suits a particular site.
Fremont County (WY footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-02-25
The source identifies itself as the Fremont County Firewise Plant List. FireApproved publishes its 92 exact source owners as Fremont County regional context. No methodology, current county endorsement, statewide Wyoming scope, or site-specific suitability is inferred.
King County's current wildfire page links this list for the Puget Sound Basin. FireApproved publishes 82 exact source owners as basin context, not statewide Washington guidance or a site-specific recommendation.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AK, CA, CO, ID, ME, MI, MN, MT, NH, NY, OR, PA, SD, VT, WA, WI, WY.
Native range
Current cited native range in AK, CA, CO, ID, ME, MI, MN, MT, NH, NY, OR, PA, SD, VT, WA, WI, WY.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
An exact source temperature is retained below the published zone scale; no zone is invented.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 42968, Temperature, Minimum (°F).
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Protect Your Home from Wildfire: Shrubs [Alaska DNR brochure sections] (with its recommendation)
Firewise Plant Material for the Black Hills: Shrubs [black-hills-plant-form-table] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
