Shadbush June-berry
=Habitat and Range.=--Dry, open woods, hillsides.
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to Lake Superior.
New England,--throughout.
South to the Gulf of Mexico; west to Minnesota, Kansas, and
Louisiana.
=Habit.=--Shrub or small tree, 10-25 feet high, with a trunk diameter of
6-10 inches, reaching sometimes a height of 40 feet and trunk diameter
f 18 inches; head rather wide-spreading, slender-branched, open;
conspicuous in early spring, while other trees are yet naked, by its
profuse display of loose spreading clusters of white flowers, and the
delicate tints of the silky opening foliage.
=Bark.=--Trunk and large branches greenish-gray, smooth; branchlets
purplish-brown, smooth.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, oblong-conical, pointed. Leaves
2-3-1/2 inches long, about half as wide, slightly pubescent when young,
dark bluish-green above at maturity, lighter beneath; outline varying
from ovate to obovate, finely and sharply serrate; apex pointed or
mucronate, often abruptly so; base somewhat heart-shaped or rounded;
leafstalk about 1 inch long; stipules slender, silky, ciliate, soon
falling.
=Inflorescence.=--April to May. Appearing with the leaves at the end of
the branchlets in long, loose, spreading or drooping, nearly glabrous
racemes; flowers large; calyx 5-cleft, campanulate, pubescent to nearly
glabrous; segments lanceolate, acute, reflexed; petals 5, whole,
narrow-oblong or oblong-spatulate, about 1 inch long, two to three times
the length of the calyx; stamens numerous: ovary with style deeply
5-parted.
=Fruit.=--June to July. In drooping racemes, globose, passing through
various colors to reddish, purplish, or black purple, long-stemmed,
sweet and edible without decided flavor.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; grows in all soils
and situations except in wet lands, but prefers deep, rich, moist loam;
very irregular in its habit of growth, sometimes forming a shrub, at
other times a slender, unsymmetrical tree, and again a symmetrical tree
with well-defined trunk. Its beautiful flowers, clean growth, attractive
fruit and autumn foliage make it a desirable plant in landscape
plantations where it can be grouped with other trees. Occasionally in
nurseries; procurable from collectors.
1. Winter buds.
2. Flowering branch.
3. Flower with part of perianth and stamens removed.
4. Fruiting branch.