Amelanchier laevis
Object Details
- Description
- This understory tree can be distinguished from another common serviceberry (A. arborea) by its hairless leaves and sweeter and juicier fruit. It is a beautiful tree throughout the year with its white flowers and bronze tinted leaves in the spring, edible fruit in the summer, a vivid red-orange leaves in the fall. It can benefit from some pruning to shape it, or it tends to grow in a more shrub-like fashion.
- Hardiness
- -30 - 20 F
- Attracts
- Bees, birds, butterflies (host plant for Red-Spotted Purple and Viceroy butterflies)
- Bloom Time
- April
- Ethnobotanical Uses
- Berries used in jams, jellies, and pies. Fruit has also been used by some Native Americans to make a high energy snack for trips called pemmican, which is made from the dried fruits, meat, and fat.
- Provenance
- From a cultivated plant not of known wild origin
- Range
- E Canada to N Central and E USA
- Habitat
- Thickets, open woods, forest margins
- Topic
- Trees
- Living Collections
- See more items in
- Smithsonian Gardens Tree Collection
- On Display
- National Air & Space Museum
- Data Source
- Smithsonian Gardens
- Accession Number
- 2022-0427A
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Common Name
- Allegheny serviceberry
- Juneberry
- Smooth shadbush
- Group
- [vascular plants]
- Class
- Equisetopsida
- Subclass
- Magnoliidae
- Superorder
- Rosanae
- Order
- Rosales
- Family
- Rosaceae
- Genus
- Amelanchier
- Species
- laevis
- Life Form
- Deciduous tree
- Average Height
- 15-40' (4.6-12.2 meters)
- Bark Characteristics
- Gray and smooth with some white striping.
- Bloom Characteristics
- Five-petaled, white flowers grow in drooping clusters. Bloom before leaves emerge.
- Fall Color
- Red-orange
- Foliage Characteristics
- Simple, alternate, ovate leaves have serrated margins. Leaves are 2-4" (5-10.2 cm) long and emerge with a bronze tint in spring. Mature leaves are dark green.
- Fragrance
- Sweet (faint, flowers)
- Fruit Characteristics
- Berry-like fruit ripens to purple-black and resemble blueberries. June.
- Structure
- Upright, vase
- Metadata Usage
- Not determined
- Record ID
- ofeo-sg_2022-0427A