Low serviceberry

Photo: GrammarFascist — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Survives zone 4 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

One of the best-flavoured serviceberries: juicy, sweet, with a distinct hint of apple and only a few soft seeds. Naturally a plant of calcareous shores and banks, so it is one to reach for where the soil is limy and blueberries are hopeless.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

June–July

Mature size

Low, suckering shrub 1.8 m tall by 3 m wide

Light

Full sun to light woodland shade

Soil pH

5.5–8.0 (mildly acid to mildly alkaline) — takes limestone

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Eastern North America — Vermont west to Alberta, south to New York and Iowa, on rocky or sandy shores and banks, often calcareous.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

3–4 yrs

Growth speed

20–40 cm/year — medium.

Spacing

150 cm (59 in) apart — about 2.3 m² (24 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, oval to oblong, 2–6 cm long, rounded at the tip, toothed mainly above the middle, and white-woolly beneath as they open.

Root system

Shallow, fibrous and suckering, spreading into thickets by root shoots.

Fruit description

Round purple-black pomes 6–10 mm across in short erect clusters, sweet and juicy when fully ripe, with the soft almond-flavoured pips typical of the genus.

Propagation

Division of rooted suckers is easiest. Seed needs about three to four months cold stratification and, being apomictic, comes largely true to the parent.

Pollination

Insect-pollinated; largely self-fertile.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.