Downy serviceberry

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Downy serviceberry fruit

Downy serviceberry buds

Downy serviceberry leaf

Downy serviceberry bark

Downy serviceberry flower

Downy serviceberry flowers

Downy serviceberry bark

Downy serviceberry infloresences

Downy serviceberry flowers

Downy serviceberry

Downy serviceberry flowers

Downy serviceberry

Downy serviceberry

Downy serviceberry flowers

Downy serviceberry fruit

Downy serviceberry bud and leaf scar

Downy serviceberry

Downy serviceberry flowers

Downy serviceberry

Downy serviceberry bark

Morphology

Trunk

Stems erect, solitary or in colonies from suckers; bark gray, initially smooth, eventually furrowed, furrows shallow, ridges long; wood brown, hard.

Twigs

Reddish brown, flexible, glabrous; leaf scars crescent-shaped; buds reddish brown, conic, margins ciliate, apex acute to acuminate, terminal buds .4 to .5 inch, lateral buds .04 to .1 inch.

Leaves

Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole .5 to 1 inch; blade ovate to obovate, 1.6 to 3.6 inches long, 1 to 2 inches wide, base cordate to rounded, margins serrate to 2-serrate, apex acute to acuminate, abaxial surface light green, densely lanate initially, sparsely lanate or glabrate later, adaxial surface dark green, glabrous or sparsely hairy later.

Flowers

Racemes, terminal from new growth, (3-)6-12(-15)-flowered, .8 to 2.8 inches; peduncles .2 to 1.2 inch, lanate or glabrescent; pedicels .2 to 1.2 inch, lanate. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; sepals 5, reflexed after flowering, triangular to lanceolate, .08 to .16 inch; petals 5, white, linear to oblong, .4 to .7 inch long, .1 to .26 inch wide; stamens 16-21; pistils 5; styles 5, connate proximally, .12 to .22 inch; stigma as many as styles.

Fruit

April to July; pomes, maroon-purple, globose, .24 to .4 inch diameter, glabrous; sepals persistent; seeds purplish brown, ovoid, granular.

Ecology

Habitat

Open, rocky woods, stream banks, often on steep slopes and tops of bluffs

Distribution

East 1/4 of Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

Birds eat the fruits. Native Americans used the berries in soups and stews and dried them for winter use. The fruits and infusions of small branches were given to mothers following childbirth to relieve pain and hemorraging.

Additional Notes