Ninebark gets its common name from having different aspects of its bark of the bark being smooth, in thin shreds, papery sheets, creamy, tan, light brown, darker brown, orange brown, and such. It is native to central Ontario & Quebec & spots in New Brunswick down the Appalachians to central Alabama to the Ozarks to spots in the eastern Great Plains to around the Great Lakes in bogs, bottomlands, along watercourses, upland forest edges, and on cliffs. It is twiggy and not real neat nor messy, an average looking shrub. It is fast growing, reliable, with a shallow, fibrous root system and is easy to transplant. The white flower clusters don't have a nice smell. The capsule fruits begin as a good red turning brown later on that is used by waterfowl, upland gamebirds, and small mammals. I like this species in its natural green-foliaged form in an informal or naturalistic landscape, and many native plant nurseries do sell this. Conventional nurseries sell a number of different cultivars of this species that usually have red foliage all season long and a few with yellow foliage all season; though, any such pigmented plants do lose the bright color during really warm or hot summertime. I have not seen the regular green mother species very much the last few decades in conventional landscapes. Even conventional nurseries used to sell some green ones in the 60's into the 80's.

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According to NPIN, Physocarpus opulifolius (Ninebark) has special value to native and honey bees, and attracts birds with its fruit pods.

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