Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Amelanchier canadensis (L.) Medic.
- Family: Rose (Rosaceae)
- Flowering: March-June
- Field Marks: The flowering racemes of this shrub are ascending rather than pendulous, the young leaves are densely white-hairy, and the sepals of the flowers are densely hairy.
- Habitat: Wet woods, swamps, damp thickets.
- Habit: Shrub to 25 feet tall, usually with multiple trunks, with smooth, gray bark.
- Stems: Slender, gray or red-brown, hairy at first, becoming smooth; buds brown or greenish brown, smooth, the terminal one up to 1/2 inch long.
- Leaves: Alternate, simple, oval to oblong, rounded or short-pointed at the tip, rounded or sometimes heart-shaped at the base, finely toothed, densely white-hairy when young, becoming smooth; leaf stalks 1/2-3/4 inch long, smooth or hairy.
- Flowers: Several in dense, ascending racemes, the racemes up to 3 inches long, each flower on a densely hairy stalk.
- Sepals: 5, united below, the lobes about 1/6 inch long, green, erect or spreading, densely hairy.
- Petals: 5, free, white, linear to oblong, up to 1/2 inch long.
- Stamens: About 20.
- Pistils: Ovary inferior, smooth or sparsely hairy.
- Fruits: Apple-like, spherical, black or dark purple, sweet, juicy, 1/4-1/3 inch in diameter.
- Notes: The fruits are edible and are eaten by a number of wild species. This plant is also known as shadbush and juneberry.
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