downy serviceberry

not listed

N5 - Secure

SNR - Unranked

not listed

FACU - Facultative upland

FACU - Facultative upland

FACU - Facultative upland

Downy serviceberry is a tall shrub or small tree. In Minnesota it is usually 10′ to 25′ tall. It is sometimes much taller but rarely more than 40′ tall and rarely less than 6½′ tall. It rises on multiple upright stems. When it is single stemmed, the stem is usually up to 3″ in diameter. It does not spread by underground stems (rhizomes). The crown is usually taller than wide.

The bark is thin, smooth, and gray when young, developing shallow, vertical furrows and flat ridges with age.

First year branchlets are slender, greenish, flexible, and usually hairy. In the second year they are brown to reddish-brown and hairless with a few scattered, light-colored lenticels. Terminal buds are up to ½″ long with a long point. They are light yellowish-green to greenish-red and have a fringe of hairs on the margins. Lateral buds often hook slightly around the twig.

The leaves are alternate, egg-shaped to elliptical, 1½″ to 3″ long, and 1″ to 2″ wide. They are on slender, light green, ⅝″ to1¼″ long leaf stalks (petioles). The petioles are hairy, especially in the spring but also at maturity. The leaf blades are rounded or slightly heart-shaped at the base and taper to a point at the tip. The upper surface is dark green, dull, and hairless or almost hairless. The lower surface is pale green and is densely covered with white hairs when young, becoming less hairy but retaining at least hairs along the midrib at maturity. The margins are finely and closely toothed with sharp, forward-pointing teeth. Larger leaves have 25 to 45 teeth per side. The toothed part of the margin extends nearly to the rounded base.

The inflorescence is an unbranched, 1½″ to 3″ long cluster (raceme) of 5 to 12 flowers at the end of the stems and branches. The flowers appear from late April to late May when the leaves are just starting to unfold. Each flower is on a hairy flower stalk (pedicel). The lower pedicels are 3 ⁄16″ to 1″ long.

The flowers have both male and female reproductive parts. There are 5 sepals, 5 petals, 20 stamens, and 5 styles. The sepals are green, triangular, hairy, bent backwards, and short, ⅛″ to 3 ⁄16″ long. The petals are white, narrowly egg-shaped to narrowly oblong, and 7 ⁄16″ to ⅝″ long. They are at least 2 times longer than wide. The ovary is hairless at the top. The flowers are mildly fragrant.

The fruit is a more or less globe-shaped, 5 ⁄16″ to ½″ in diameter, pome with 4 to 10 seeds. They are green at first, becoming red, then purplish-black at maturity. It is somewhat dry and mostly tasteless.

10′ to 25′

White

Dry. Upland woods, open forests, swamp edges. Full to partial sun.

Late April to late May

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 24, 28, 29, 30.

Native

Common in eastern North America west to the St. Croix Valley of Minnesota.

Leaf

Fruit