Serviceberry: A native plant for all seasons

In early spring, creamy white flowers with five petals open like dangling stars on the multi-stemmed 15-to-25-foot-tall serviceberry. In June, edible, round, reddish berries hang in clusters, attracting wildlife. Come fall the leaves turn shades of yellow, orange and red. And in winter, serviceberry’s “interesting structure emerges, highlighted by the tree’s smooth, gray-striped bark,” wrote blogger Rhonda Ferree, retired horticulture educator for the University of Illinois Extensions Service.

The serviceberry, which has an average life span of 30 to 40 years, is truly a native plant for all seasons in Illinois. It’s also one of the Extension Services’ recommended species to plant instead of the invasive and nonnative Bradford pear tree. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources also lists serviceberry as one of the best native trees to plant in yards. It doesn’t take up too much room, and it’s one of the first native trees to bloom in spring, as early as March in southern Illinois. It’s also adaptable to a wide range of conditions including fairly dry soils as well as those that are occasionally damp to wet during cool weather, according to Terry L. Ettinger, owner of Ettinger Horticulture Consulting Services. Give it at least four hours of sun and the serviceberry likely will thrive in your yard as it does in the wild.

In the wild, serviceberries, which are related to apples trees, can be found at edges of swamps, along the banks of rivers, wooded bluffs and slopes and in upland woodlands.

Native and cultivated serviceberries, which are in the Amelanchier genus, grow in tree and shrub form throughout North America. Roughly 20 species are native to north America, with at least three native to Illinois. These include Amelanchier laevis, known as the Allegheny serviceberry or smooth shadbush, Amelanchier arborea, often called downy serviceberry, and Amelanchier interior or inland shadbush. The Allegheny is the most widespread in the state.

A host of hybrids, such as a cross between the downy and Allegheny called apple serviceberry, also are available at nurseries.

The serviceberry was important to Native Americans, who used it to flavor venison and squirrel, among other things. The Native Americans were said to make pemmican, a dried mash of meat, berries and animal fat. The berries used would be whatever was in season.

The serviceberry was also celebrated by European settlers, and it remains important in our landscape today.

One of its common names, shadbush, refers to the fact that it often blooms the same time shad fish begin to spawn. It’s also called Juneberry because of the month the fruits ripen.

It could be folklore or fact, but stories say the European settlers named the plant they discovered in the new world, serviceberry, for a specific reason. When the serviceberries began to bloom, it signaled the time of year when ministers who traveled to settlers homes to hold services in spring and summer would return after a long, cold winter.

The blooms’ nectar and pollen provide an early source of nourishment to bees and other insects awakening from winter slumber. It also supports more than 100 species of butterflies and moths, including the luna moth and the eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly.

The blossoms are the precursor to fruits, which are actually called pomes rather than berries. Chicago resident Pam Karlson looks forward every June to seeing American robins feed serviceberry fruits to their young in her bird-friendly garden.

“Robins love them, and so do cedar waxwings,” she said.

Karlson watches as the newly fledged young, still donning spotted breasts, hop on the somewhat flimsy branches with little aplomb. Baltimore orioles and woodpeckers also feast on the berries, while chipmunks and squirrels climb the trees to get to the fruits.

Don Kahl, Illinois Department of Natural Resources Ag and Grassland Wildlife Program Manager, emphasized that serviceberry are valued by a variety of wildlife species.

“Serviceberry can be utilized by both turkey and quail, both for foraging berries and buds, but also as beneficial woody cover,” Kahl explained. “Deer will readily browse the leaves, berries and stems, and the pruning action of stem browsing by deer can lead to shorter, brushier growth forms of the shrubs, which is the growth form most beneficial to quail and turkey.”

He continued by saying that quail can use the shrubs for escape, loafing and thermal cover, while hen wild turkeys can benefit from the addition of these shrubs in forest understories or in fallow fields for nesting cover. Squirrels also feed on the berries. Although now extirpated from Illinois, ruffed grouse relish serviceberries.

As with other plant species, the serviceberry produces small to large amounts of berries annually, depending on weather conditions and other factors.

Usually there’s more than enough for both wild creatures and humans. In early June, Illinois Natural History Survey botanist and ecologist Paul Marcum gets up early to scour the neighborhood parks for serviceberries.

One day in June, he said he “walked around town and picked a little over a half gallon of serviceberries.”

He uses the berries in muffins and cobblers. He also combines serviceberries with paw paws from the wild to create a paw paw-serviceberry walnut bread. Washing berries before use is highly recommended, especially if harvested in areas where you are uncertain what chemicals may have been sprayed.

I (the author) have made both serviceberry muffins and serviceberry pies from my tree’s bounty. While harvesting, I pop a few into my mouth and get a distinct almond-like flavor, which also permeates the muffins I make.

I leave some serviceberries on the tree to share with wild creatures, and enjoy their antics, as they swallow the pomes. Eating serviceberries can be a way to feel more connected with wildlife.

Once the berries are gone and autumn is night, the leaves take on a brilliant pumpkin color. When the leaves drop, the gray bark complements the white winter snows, and we wait for the green leaves and early spring blossoms that signal promise of another batch of berries.