Amelanchier alnifolia
Western Serviceberry

Family: Rosaceae (Rose family)

© 2001 Thayne Tuason. Photo taken at Icicle River Canyon, dry hillside, flowering April-May.

© 2001 Thayne Tuason. Icicle River Canyon.

© 2010 Thayne Tuason. Leaf buds just about to open in mid March near Saddlerock, Wenatchee.

Flowers:

racemose; 5 white petals, mostly 10-20 mm; stamens 12-20; styles mostly 5

Fruit:

fleshy, purple, pomaceous; 7-14 mm diameter in fruit

Leaves:

Deciduous; eliptic to round, generally serrate above the middle; glaberate or sparsely sericeous on lower leaf surface, upper surface generally glabrous in fruit

Plant:

woody shrub; spreading to erect, 0.5 to 10 meters tall. Traditionally an important food, the berries were eaten raw, cooked, or dried and stored for future use by the Okanagan-Colville, Okanagan, and Thompson. The wood was used to make arrows, spears, root digging sticks, and other tools.

Habitat:

Open woods to canyons to hillsides, from sea level to subalpine

Distribution of species:

Southern Alaska to California, east to Dakotas, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Arizona

Distribution of genus:

more or less 10 species: temperate North America, Euasia, and North Africa