JUNEBERRY; SERVICEBERRY; MAY-CHERRY
(Amelanchier Canadensis) Apple family

Flowers - Pure white, over 1 in. across, on long, slender
pedicels, in spreading or drooping racemes, with silky, reddish
bracts, early falling, among them. Calyx persistent, 5-parted; 5
long, narrow, tapering petals, 3 or 4 times the length of calyx;
numerous stamens inserted on calyx throat; 2 to 5 styles, hairy
at base. Stem: A large shrub or tree, usually much less than 25
ft. high, rarely twice that height, wood very hard and heavy.
Leaves: Alternate, oval, tapering at tip, finely saw-edged,
smooth (like the pear tree's), often hairy when young. Fruit.
Round, crimson, sweet, edible, seedy berries, ripe in June and
July.
Preferred Habitat - Woodland borders, pasture thickets, dry soil.
Flowering Season - March-May.
Distribution - Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico, westward over
a thousand miles.

Silvery-white chandeliers, hanging from the edges of the woods,
light Flora's path in earliest spring, before the trees and
shrubbery about them have begun to put forth foliage, much less
flowers. Little plants that hug the earth for protection while
rude winds rush through the forest and across the hillsides, are
already starring her way with fragile, dainty blossoms; but what
other shrub, except the serviceberry's twin sister the shadbush,
or perhaps the spicebush, has the temerity to burst into bloom
while March gusts howl through the naked forests? Little female