Scientific name: Amelanchier arborea
Family: Rosaceae (Rose family)
Downy serviceberry, is a deciduous tree in the Rosaceae (rose) family, native to eastern North America. It typically grows on wooded slopes and cliffs, open woods, wooded bluffs, rocky woodlands, limestone glades, riverbanks, and edges of swamps. t has a multistemmed habit as a small tree or, if the root suckers are not removed, it will attain a more shrubby-like form. 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.
Identification
LEAF: Pointed, 2 to 4-inch, slender-stalked leaves are purplish-brown until mature when they become light green. Young leaves are covered with hairs on the underside. As the tree matures, the leaves are less hairy.
TWIGS AND BUDS: Terminal buds are long and pointed, blossoming into 3 to 7-inch drooping clusters of 1-inch flowers before, or with, the leaves.
FLOWER: Drooping racemes of six to fourteen star-shaped, white to pale pink flowers that bloom from March to May.
FRUIT OR SEED: Small, fleshy green apple-like fruits will turn red then purple-black as they mature. Fruits display from May to August and this plant is self-fruitful, so it does not need a pollenizer to create fruit. It has a slightly sweet taste.
BARK: Its bark is smooth when young and on branches, but more fissured as it ages and on the trunk. As the tree ages, long, vertical splits and furrows develop.
SHAPE: Narrow, rounded form.
MATURE HEIGHT: 15-25 feet.
Information credits: NC State Extension
Photo credits: Douglas Goldman, David J.Stang.
Lower Olentangy Urban Arboretum 