Amelanchier utahensis

Amelanchier utahensis is a shrub to small tree with dark green oval serrulate leaves. The white flowers have obovate petals. Amelanchier utahensis prefers drier habitat at lower to middle elevation.

Common Name: Utah serviceberry Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Tree Wetland Status: FACU General: Deciduous shrub or small tree, 0.5-5 m (1.6-16 ft) tall; branches numerous; twigs and buds often pubescent. Bark smooth, reddish when young, becoming ashy-gray with age. Leaves: Alternate, simple, elliptic, ovate, or nearly round, 0.5- 3 cm long, 0.8-2 cm wide, usually hairy on one or both surfaces, rarely glabrous, with prominent veins below, margins serrate to crenate-serrate from the middle of the blade to the apex, base rounded, apex rounded or truncate, sometimes with a shallow notch; stipules filiform, soon deciduous; petiole 2-9 mm long. Flowers: Inflorescence a short raceme of 3-6 flowers; hypanthium, pedicels, and sepals usually tomentose; sepals 5, 1-3 mm long, reflexed at time of flowering; petals 5, oblanceolate, 5-9 mm long, white, cream, or pinkish; styles usually 2-3; stamens 15-20. Fruits: Pome, round, 5-10 mm long, orangish or yellowish, often with a purple cast, flesh somewhat dry; seeds 3-6, 3.8- 5.6 mm long, dark brown. Ecology: Found on rocky hillsides, streambanks, pi-on-juniper woodlands and ponderosa pine forests from 2,000-7,500 ft (610-2286 m), flowers April-May. Distribution: Apache, Coconino, Navajo, Mohave, and Yavapai counties; western Canada, western U.S., northern Mexico. Notes: Amelanchier alnifolia is similar to A. utahensis, but it has larger leaves and flowers, with 5-15 flowers in a raceme. It is drought tolerant, prefers full sun, and tends to sprout from the root crown following fire. Deer, porcupine, and desert bighorn sheep all browse this species, and the fruits are eaten by many birds. It is a host plant for Weidemeyer-s admiral butterfly. Ethnobotany: Berries are eaten fresh or dry. Editor: Springer et al. 2011