Photo: Gilles Ayotte, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Bartram's Serviceberry

Amelanchier bartramiana

Also called oblongfruit serviceberry, mountain serviceberry, mountain shadbush, Bartram's shadbush, Amelanchier oligocarpa.

The most northern of the eastern serviceberries, a low shrub of cool bogs and mountain woods with white flowers and pear-shaped purple fruit.

EdibleShowy flowersWildlife valueTolerates wet soil

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 2–8 ft
USDA zones: 2–7
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: The Appalachians, rocky ground, swamps and wet flats
Native range: 10 states, north and west to Minnesota and south to West Virginia
List all 10
Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin
See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Bartram's serviceberry is a northern shrub of cold bogs and mountaintops, and the most distinct of its genus. It is the only North American serviceberry whose fruit is pear-shaped rather than round. It honors William Bartram, who introduced it to Europe, yet it remains extremely rare in gardens. Massachusetts lists it as threatened and Pennsylvania as endangered. Plant a patch in cool, moist, acid ground, where it knits into a low thicket that fruits in summer.

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates the growth of Bartram's serviceberry. Our growth estimator treats it as a medium grower, about a foot and a half a year. It is a low shrub, usually 2 to 8 feet tall and rarely to 16, with upright stems that sucker into a dense patch.

White flowers three quarters of an inch to an inch across open with the leaves. They come two or three together, from May to August across the range. The fruit is dark purple and pear-shaped, about half an inch long, and ripens from July into September. It is edible, though it can be rather dry, and birds eat it as soon as it ripens.

It grows farther north than any other eastern serviceberry, from Newfoundland and Labrador west to Minnesota and south to Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Its home is cool woods, bogs, conifer swamps, sandy lake shores and rocky ridges, from sea level to about 4,900 feet.

How to grow Bartram's Serviceberry

Bartram's serviceberry wants a cool site in part shade or sun. It grows in moist, acid soil, whether rocky, sandy or peaty. It favors undisturbed ground, such as peatlands and natural openings in old forest. Set plants 4 feet apart, and keep them 3 feet from a wall or path, since the stems sucker outward.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep a thin mulch clear of the stems. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall a quarter inch deep. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for 90 to 120 days first. Many seeds wait until the second spring to come up.

Water weekly through the first summer and in dry spells for two more, since it comes from cool, damp ground. Deer and rabbits browse serviceberries, so guard young plants with wire for the first two or three winters. Prune only to remove dead stems, and cut back suckers that stray past the bed.

Some plants set seed only with pollen from another plant, so plant two or more from different seed for a crop. It crosses readily with other serviceberries growing nearby. Birds take the fruit as soon as it ripens. Like other serviceberries, it can show rust or leaf spots, which seldom do lasting harm.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (10)