At this time of year, forest margins and hedgerows are punctuated with airy sprays of white blossoms: serviceberry! This early-blooming member of the rose family is known by several different regional names. Another is Shadbush, which reflects the fact that the small white flowers open at the same time of year as the spawning runs of shad fish occur in eastern coastal rivers. I found a couple of explainations for the name serviceberry. One is that the flowers open early in the spring, when burial services for early pioneers who had died in the winter were conducted, once the ground thawed. I liked this better than the more prosaic explanation that serviceberry is a corruption of the word “sarvisberry”, a referance to the berries’ resemblance to the fruits of the sarvis tree (European mountain ash).
There are 20 or so species in the genus Amelanchier, which grows as a shrub or small tree. The species hybridize readily, so it can be difficult to identify the species of an particular plant with assurance, but in this area, the Downy Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) is common. It produces rather unpalatable red-purple fruit later in the summer which, while not a favorite of people, are enjoyed by a number of birds, including cedar waxwings, orioles, veeries and catbirds. The fruit of other species, such as the Western Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia), which produces Saskatoon berries, are reputed to be very tasty.
The pretty white flowers, with long, narrow petals, are bisexual and insect pollinated. Serviceberry bushes are quite slow-growing and long-lived. They are tolerant of a range of conditions, from dry to moist, and can tolerate the shade of the forest understory. Their spring blooms make them a good source of nectar for early-emerging insects.
Willow House Chronicles 
We’d like to get an amalenchier, but haven’t decided which type. Besides being tastier, the Saskatoonberry tree is shorter and bushier, but not native to New Brunswick (we’d have to mail-order it), and the canadensis is locally available but would get too tall (we have enough trees). Decisions, decisions.
Hi Lb. When I was away this weekend, I dropped by Lost Horizons. I noticed there is a smaller garden-variety serviceberry. Don’t know if it would be available out your way… Losthorizons.ca…Amelanchier ‘Glenform’ [Rainbow Pillar]
[…] The first flowering tree to produce blossoms in spring here, right after the yellow Forsythia bushes, and before the apple trees, seems to be the serviceberry. There are several different species of serviceberry in Ontario, and I’m not certain which one this is, but the Allegheny Serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis) is among the more common in our area. We have a couple of serviceberry trees not far from the house, set back in the first field. The larger of the two stands guard over the nestbox the bluebirds nested in last summer, almost but not quite nestled in its branches. I hadn’t paid too much attention to the tree last summer – being past its spring blooming it was unremarkable, bearing generic oval leaves and having a rather plain trunk – so its spring display took me by surprise. Its flowers remind me of thin, loose cherry or apple blossoms – perhaps not too surprising, since it’s in the same family, Rosaceae. My mom recently did a nice post about serviceberries with some further information about them – check it out here. […]