Summary ⁴

Amelanchier alnifolia, the saskatoon, Pacific serviceberry, western serviceberry, alder-leaf shadbush, dwarf shadbush, chuckley pear, or western juneberry, is a shrub with edible berry-like fruit, native to North America from Alaska across most of western Canada and in the western and north central United States. Historically it was also called "pigeon berry". It grows from sea level in the north of the range, up to 2,600 m (8,530 ft) elevation in California and 3,400 m (11,200 ft) in the Rocky Mountains.

Description ⁵

General: Rose Family (Rosaceae). Native shrubs or small trees growing to 7 meters high, variable in growth form, forming thickets, mats, or clumps, the underground portions including a massive root crown, horizontal and vertical rhizomes, and an extensive root system; bark: thin, light brown and tinged with red, smooth or shallowly fissured. Leaves are deciduous, simple, alternate, ovate to nearly round, 2.5-3 cm long, with lateral, parallel veins in 8-13 pairs, the margins coarsely serrate or dentate to below middle or sometimes entire or with only a few small teeth at the top. Flowers are in short, dense, 5-15-flowered, upright racemes, the petals white, 1-2 cm long and strap-like, sepals more or less long-hairy on the inside, reflexing in age, stamens about 20, styles 5, ovary persistently tomentose at the top. Fruit are 6-11 mm long, smooth, purple-black, slightly gray-blue waxy, the pulp fleshy and sweet; seeds 4-10. The common name refers to the city in Saskatchewan, Canada, in the heart of the species’ range.

Variation within the species: Considerable variation is recognized. Var. alnifolia occurs over the whole range of the species, except for California, where only var. semiintegrifolia is found. Other varieties include the following: var. cusickii (Fern.) C.L. Hitchc. and var. humptulipensis (G.N. Jones) C.L. Hitchc.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Gravitywave, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/74215305@N00/4799403556
2. (c) Lynette Schimming, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2453/4522005131_8a88ae4eaa.jpg
3. (c) 2006 Steven Thorsted, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=198950&one=T
4. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelanchier_alnifolia
5. Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/1377306

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• Calflora
• CalPhotos
• eFloras.org
• Flora of North America (beta)
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• Go Botany
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• Jepson eFlora
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• OregonFlora.org
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• Tropicos
• USDA PLANTS database
• VASCAN by Canadensys
• World Flora Online

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