On the list of trees that I consider more worthy than the maple as emblems on our national flag, the serviceberry runs neck and neck with the paper birch. Like the birch, this small tree, bedecked at this time of year with flimsy, five-petalled flowers, extends from coast to coast, its most northerly limit being the subarctic stretch of the Mackenzie River.
It also tolerates shade, which the birch does not. This makes it very easy to identify in our local maple-hickory forest where it grows as an upland, understory tree, near openings, and is the first white-flowering tree to bloom.
It is also the first to bear fruit of interest to our species. You need to know this because the fruit of the serviceberry is delicious and comes early in the season, ripening to a dark blue by early July. (In fact, in some parts of the continent, certain species of Amelanchier, as the serviceberry genus is known, are known as Juneberries, because the blueberry-like fruit is ready to eat in June.) If you attune yourself now to locations of the tree, you’ll be able to watch the fruit develop and be there to pick it before the birds do.
In this part of the country, paradoxically, knowledge of the fruit has declined in the past few decades while popularity of the tree has increased. In my stomping grounds in central Montreal, everyone seems to be planting this tough and rewarding tree. In the past few weeks, the whimsical, often multi-trunked trees floated their white clouds of flowers in streetside flowerbeds, school yards, and parks, including the area northwest of the Park – Pine avenues interchange, and the McGill University grounds.But few passersby seem not to know that the fruit is there for the picking. I won’t forget the delight of some children playing in the hollow next to the Redpath Museum, when I mentioned to them that they could eat the deep red fruit. They could also reach it themselves; one of the advantages of the serviceberry is that is a small tree, making the fruit easy to pick. A sweet city is a city, in my books, has fruit for the picking!
Saskatoon is one such city and its citizens know what to do with the berry of the tree that named their city. The Saskatoon, or sâskwatôn, in the original Cree, is a western species of the serviceberry. The Cree dried the berries to flavour their pemmican, a mixture of dried buffalo, fat and saskatoons A Saskatooner once told me that when the berries ripen every “aunty and grandmother” is making pies, jams and syrups.. If the trend for serviceberry trees continues here in Montreal, we might just be doing the same!
One of my favorite trees. When I worked for the parks department in Boston I recommended this tree for planting beneath overhead wires or in small sidewalk areas.
ReplyDeleteI did not know that the berries are edible. There are several serviceberries growing in my current neighborhood. I'll be on the lookout for the June berries!
Georgia,
ReplyDeleteThe June part of the berry may refer to more southern species in the genus, Amelanchier, but who knows with our early spring? By mid-July, in any case, we ought to be able to make saskatoon pie. I suggest to all readers of this blog, that we make a posting, including the location, of the first tree in fruit.
Now, if we could only get the traffic report people to report on high traffic - of either the mammalian or avian sort - fruiting trees!