Service-tree Amelanchier arborea

Downy serviceberry, is a deciduous tree in the Rosaceae (rose) family, native to eastern North America, and found throughout North Carolina.  It typically grows on wooded slopes and cliffs, open woods, wooded bluffs, rocky woodlands, limestone glades, riverbanks, and edges of swamps. It is not frost tender.

Downy serviceberry grows in a wide range of cultural conditions: in full sun to partial shade and acidic to neutral, sandy, loam, or clay soil that is moist and well drained, but occasionally wet or dry. It has a multistemmed habit as a small tree or, if the root suckers are not removed, it will attain a more shrubby like form. Typically growing 15 to 25 feet tall with a narrow, rounded form, it can reach heights of 40 feet in the wild. The trunk can range from 6 to 18 inches. 

In the spring, fragrant five-petaled, white flowers mature, followed by finely toothed leaves with a hairy underside. The bark is smooth when young. As the tree ages, long, vertical splits and furrows develop. The small tree produces a red to purple berry that matures in the late summer to fall. The berries have some resemblance to blueberries. It attracts bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, as well as songbirds and small mammals.

Because of its cultural versatility, downy serviceberry also fills a wide variety of garden uses in any location, from specimen to border, barrier, mass planting, or understory tree. It is sometimes planted as an ornamental for the showy clusters of flowers and is commonly sold in the nursery trade as Amelanchier canadensis, although canadensis is, in fact, a shrubby East Coast species.

Insects, Diseases and Other Plant Problems:  Insects include leaf miner, pear sawfly, spider mites, aphids, peach borer, and scale insects. Diseases affecting the plant are cedar apple rust, glomerella leaf spot-fruit rot, fire blight, powdery mildew, witches' broom, and leaf blight. This plant is slow to root after transplant. Its suckering habit may also lead to the plant being somewhat weedy.

VIDEO Created by Elisabeth Meyer for "Trees, Shrubs, and Conifers" a plant identification course offered in partnership with Longwood Gardens.   

More information on Amelanchier.