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| ## downy serviceberry {#downy-serviceberry .Title-Header}             |
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| *Amelanchier arborea* (Michx. f.) Fern.                               |
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| Plant Symbol = AMAR3                                                  |
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####### *Contributed By: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & Biota of North America Program*

### Alternate common names

Sarvis-berry, shadblow, shadbush, juneberry, sugarplum, Indian cherry

### Uses

Trees of downy serviceberry are generally not large enough for sawtimber
but they have been used for pulpwood. The wood is extremely heavy and
hard and is occasionally made into tool handles. Cree Indians prized it
for making arrows.

At least 40 bird species (for example, mockingbirds, cardinals, cedar
waxwings, towhees, Baltimore orioles) eat the fruit of *Amelanchier*
species. Mammals that either eat the fruit or browse the twigs and
leaves of downy serviceberry include squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks,
mice, voles, foxes, black bears, deer, and elk. The fruits taste similar
to blueberry -- they are eaten fresh or cooked in pastries or puddings.

The trees are used as ornamentals and many cultivars have been selected
for variation in growth habit, flower size and color, and leaf color.
The fall foliage blends orange and gold with red and green. It grows in
partial shade to full sun, preferring moist but well-drained soil but
will also grow in dry sites.

### Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural
Resources for this plant's current status, such as, state status and
wetland indicator values.

### Description

Rose Family (Rosaceae). Native shrubs or small trees to 10 meters tall,
with a narrow, rounded crown, the twigs often red-brown to purplish,
becoming gray; bark smooth, grayish, \"striped\" with vertical fissures
and very ornamental. Leaves: deciduous, alternate, simple, oval to
oblong, 5-13 cm long, glabrous above, pubescent and paler beneath, the
base rounded or heart-shaped, acute or acuminate at the tip, with finely
toothed margins. Flowers: 3-15 in elongate clusters at the branch tips,
before the leaves appear; petals 5, white, 10-14 mm long and strap-like.
Fruits 6-12 mm wide, on long stalks, red-purple at maturity; seed 5-10
per fruit. The common name: in some regions, the flowers are gathered
for church services, hence serviceberry or sarvis-berry; or "service"
from "sarvis," in turn a modification of the older name "*Sorbus*," a
closely related genus.
![](media/image2.jpeg){width="2.6944444444444446in"
height="1.7965277777777777in"}

*Variation within the species*: Three varieties have been recognized:
var. *alabamensis* (Britt.) G.N. Jones; var. *arborea*; and var.
*austromontana* (Ashe) Ahles.

### Distribution 

Downy serviceberry is widespread in the eastern US and southeastern
Canada (New Brunswick and southern Newfoundland to Quebec and Ontario);
south to the northern tip of the Florida Panhandle and west to Alabama,
southern Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas (rare), Oklahoma, Kansas,
Nebraska, and Minnesota.

### Adaptation 

Downy serviceberry grows in a variety of habitats -- swampy lowlands,
dry woods, sandy bluffs, rocky ridges, forest edges, and open woodlands
and fields. It is a late successional to climax species in
mixed-hardwood forests of the central U.S., commonly as an understory
species. In the southern Appalachians, downy serviceberry grows in red
spruce-Fraser fir forests at elevations of 1500-2000 meters with yellow
birch, mountain ash, elderberry, and hobblebush. Flowering
(March-)April-May, among the first of the early spring trees and shrubs
to bloom; fruiting June-August.

### Establishment

Downy serviceberry regenerates mainly by seed, but

it also sprouts from the roots. Birds and mammals disperse seeds;
scarification of the seeds after ingestion by birds is important for
germination. Seeds can be sown after 2-6 months of cold stratification,
but they will not usually germinate until after the second spring.

### Management

Fire top-kills downy serviceberry, but it can sprout from root crowns
and stumps following fire. A significant portion of the post-fir
reestablishment is from seed dispersed from off-site by birds and
mammals. Following wildfire in a spruce-fir forest of Appalachia, downy
serviceberry was present in stands after 30 years but was less than 1%
of the total basal area. Gypsy moth larvae (*Lymantria dispar*) feed
selectively on downy serviceberry.

### Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

Natural, fertile hybrids occur between downy serviceberry and *A.
bartramiana*, *A. canadensis*, *A. humilis*, and *A. laevis*. Some
cultivars are selections from *A.* X *grandiflora*, the hybrid of *A.
arborea* and *A. laevis*. Many individuals within *Amelanchier* arise
through hybridization and species boundaries are often not clear.

### References

Campbell, C.S., M.F. Wojciechowski, B.G. Baldwin, L.A. Alice, & M.J.
Donoghue 1997. *Persistent nuclear ribosomal DNA sequence polymorphism
in the Amelanchier agamic complex (Rosaceae)*. Molecular Biol. Evol.
14:81-90.

Campbell C.S., W.A. Wright, T.F. Vining, & W.A. Halteman 1997.
*Morphological variation in sexual and agamospermous* *Amelanchier*
(Rosaceae). Canad. J. Bot. 75:1166-1173.

Campbell, C.S., C.W. Greene, & S.E. Bergquist 1987. *Apomixis and
sexuality in three species of Amelanchier, shadbush (Rosaceae,
Maloideae)*. Amer. J. Bot. 74:321-328.

Campbell, C.S. & W.A. Wright 1996. *Apomixis, hybridization, and
taxonomic complexity in eastern North American Amelanchier (Rosaceae)*.
Folia Geobot. Phytotax. 31:345-354.

Dibble, A.C. 1995. *Conservation biology of shadbush, Amelanchier
(Rosaceae): Evidence from systematics, population structure and
reproductive ecology (Amelanchier nantucketensis*, *Amelanchier*
*stolonifera*, *Amelanchier obovalis*, *Amelanchier lucida*). Ph.D.
diss., Univ. of Maine, Orono, Maine.

Harris, R.E. 1970. *The genus Amelanchier*. J. Roy. Hort. Soc.
95:116-118.

Iverson, R. 1981. *Amelanchiers*. Amer. Horticult. 60(10):26-27, 36-37.

Landry, P. 1976. *Taxonomy and distribution of Amelanchier arborea
(Michx. f.) Fern. in Quebec and through the Maritimes*. Naturaliste
Canad. 103:377-385.

McDaniel, J.C. 1974. *Nomenclature: perennial problem in Amelanchier
arborea*. Amer. Nurseryman 139(7):66-68.

Overath, R.D. & J.L. Hamrick 1998. *Allozyme diversity in Amelanchier
arborea and A. laevis (Rosaceae)*. Rhodora 100:276-292.

Snyder, S.A. 1992. *Amelanchier arborea*. IN: W.C. Fischer (compiler).
*The fire effects information system* \[Database\]. USDA, Forest
Service, Intermountain Research Station, Intermountain Fire Sciences
Laboratory, Missoula, Montana. \<http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/\>

Robinson, W.A. 1986. *Effect of fruit ingestion on Amelanchier seed
germination*. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 113:131-134.

Weaver, R.E. 1974. *The shadbushes*. Arnoldia (Jamaica Plain) 34:22-31.

### Prepared By

*Guy Nesom*

Formerly BONAP, North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

### Species Coordinator

## *Lincoln Moore*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Edited: 17jan01 jsp;07feb03ahv; 30may06jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
Web site\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> or the
Plant Materials Program Web site
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>

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