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Serviceberry May Serve As The Perfect Little Tree

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Here's such a nice little tree you can plant in almost any sized spot; plus it gives you berries to eat (if you get to them before the birds) and pretty fall color from the leaves.

The tree's name is Amelanchier "am-ul-LANK-ee-ur," but let's call it by its easier names to say: 'Serviceberry' or 'Shadbush,' (so said because it blooms when the shad spawn in the spring).

Whatever you call it, it's a great native tree that grows easily here. It has billows of small white flowers in spring that become beautiful berries you can bake into muffins, pop into pancakes, enjoy as jam - or just let birds breakfast upon instead.

Serviceberries can be shrub-like, with lots of stems, or more like a tree, with just one, two, or a few trunks. But, either way, they stay on the small side, so they're great for courtyards, small gardens, as a screen, collected in a grove on a larger property, or by the road - even under power lines, since they don't grow high enough to get in the way.

Full-sun to part-shade is where to put them, but like many plants, you get more flowers - and fruit - from a Serviceberry in a sunnier spot.

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