Identifying characteristics:
Serviceberries are deciduous shrubs or small trees with narrow, irregular
crowns and slender branches. Determining the species of serviceberries is
extremely difficult and nursery stock is often incorrectly named. Growing
in wetter, less well-drained sites, the shadblow serviceberry (A. canadensis)
is more low-growing (5 to15 ft) than the downy serviceberry (A. arborea)
(10 to 25 ft), has a multistemmed, suckering habit, and is the most widespread
and abundant species. The downy serviceberry, however, is more tree-like,
has an earlier blooming time and has the most tasty fruits of all serviceberries.
The Allegheny serviceberry (A. laevis) has distinctive bronze-purple
new growth and, together with A. arborea and A. interior,
is one of the three species native to Iowa.
The leaves of serviceberries
are simple, alternate, oval, usually less than 3 inches long with finely
toothed margins. Some species are a deep, blue-green color, and most have
an excellent yellow-gold or red-orange fall color. They are one of the earliest
white-flowered shrubs to bloom in spring, producing elongated, showy clusters
of dainty white, five-petalled flowers
before or with the leaves. The name "shadblow" refers to the
blooming time which corresponded to the spawning of the shad in the rivers
of the east coast. The fruit is
an edible, red berry-like pome turning gray-black, sweet and juicy when
it ripens in July or August. The buds are distinctive-long, twisted,
tapering to a point and with about five scales divided into red and green
portions. The bark is smooth and
gray becoming scaly and rough with age.
Similar species:
Ecology:
Most of the species are native to North America, with other species native
to northern Africa, Asia and Europe. Serviceberries will tolerate a wide
variety of soils, from wet, heavy clays to dry, poor, sandy soils. They
grow in the forest understory, at forest edges, on sandy plains and on rocky
outcrops. (View species in natural habitat).
Most cultivars are essentially disease- and pest-free, but
like other trees in the rose family, they are sometimes attacked by leaf
rusts and other diseases.
Uses:
The wood is heavy, hard and close-grained, but unimportant because
trees are seldom large enough to be used for wood. At least 22 species of
birds eat the fruit and 11 species of mammals either eat the fruit or browse
the foliage. The shadblow (A. canadensis) fruit is eaten by thrushes
and songbirds in early summer. Chipmunks, squirrels and even bears eat serviceberry
fruit, and mule deer browse the foliage and twigs of western species. The
fruit is tasty in pies and confections, being a little more tart than blueberries.
The Cree people of Canada mixed dried berries with dried, pounded meat to
form a small, long-lasting cake of food called pemmican.
