| General Description | A small deciduous shrub (sometimes a small tree) planted for its showy white blossoms that bloom throughout early to mid spring. The plant gets its botanical name "downy serviceberry" from the tiny fine woolly hairs on the leaves as they first emerge in the spring. The early emerge leaves are the only way of telling this species apart from A. laevis and A. canadensis. |
| ID Characteristic | Amelanchier arborea has long, pointed terminal buds, white flowers and an
edible red, fruit. |
| Shape | The crown is slightly round, upright or irregular, with a multi stem trunk. Either a big shrub or small tree. |
| Landscape | Makes a great garden shrub. Used mostly in city plantings, great to mass plant in bundles, and good for border plantings. Good for birds and bees as well. |
| Propagation | Propagation is possible through cuttings. Take cuttings that are one quarter and three eighths of an inch in diameter. The best cuttings come from the midsection of the growing shoots. Remove the foliage, but keep the two very top leaves. As a rooting medium, fill one gallon plastic pots with perlite or vermiculite and thoroughly moisten. Place the bottle's top half on top of the clippings. Once you’ve put the cutting into the dirt, place the pot with the cuttings in a warm area where it will only receive filtered or indirect sunlight. Finally, to prevent the cuttings from drying out, open the cap two or three times every week and sprinkle them with a tiny mist. Propagation should be done when the plant is dormant in autumn or very early spring. |
| Cultivation | Prefers dry or moist well-drained or dry low pH acidic soils, opposite of what A. laevis likes. Grows in a good variety of light conditions, including deep shade, partial shade, and full sun. Grows in loam or sand. |
| Pests | Leaf miners, spider mites, scales, rust spot and fire blight are some problems. Invasive Japanese beetles also present an issue for this plant. |
| Notable Specimens | A large specimen can be found off of Falconbridge Dr near Komoka, Ontario, Canada (Not public). Main trunk is dead, age unknown but assumed to be 56 or less. |
| Habitat | Usually an understory shrub in open rocky woodlands, along borders of forests, or along stream banks. |
| Bark/Stem Description | Bark is grey with vertical lines that run across the base. These lines are dark in colouration. |
| Flower/Leaf Bud Description | Reddish buds with silky hairs. The terminal buds point in a cone shape and are 1cm long in length. |
| Leaf Description | Leaves are oval obovate with a finely tooth serrated margin, with the base of the leaf being slightly cordate in shape with a pointed apex. The leaves and petiole when young are a reddish colour with fine small hairs that cover them; these eventually go away as the plant ages. |
| Flower Description | Flowers are small, white, and in racemes of 6-14 which develop at the tips of the shoots. Each individual flower is about 2.54cm, and consist of 5 narrow white pedals each. A flower consists of a pistil with a single style, a small tubular calyx with five teeth, and approximately 20 stamens. The calyx is light green and has small wooly hairs, these hairs are appropriate for identifying plants of the arborea species. The flowers emerge around the same time as the leaves, in the early to mid spring (April to May). |
| Fruit Description | The fruits are small, 6 – 11 millimetre globoid pomes. They become ripe in the summer, turning a reddish purple colour in the process. They can be eaten, although they are bland and dry tasting, but sometimes sweet. Each fruit contains 4 to 10 seeds. |
| Colour Description | The leaves turn a nice reddish orange colour in the fall around mid October. Otherwise the tree is a nice slight dark green colour. |
| Texture Description | Leaves are glabrous in texture when fully developed, soft with fine small hairs when young in spring. |