Monday, January 4, 2016

Juneberry Dreams

Juneberry in its prime.

It's time for tree-followers to pick a tree. For 2016, I want to follow a juneberry—a tree with a rich store of stories and yummy fruit. But first I have to find one.
June “berries” are pomes—from Latin for apples. They look like little apples and are in the same subtribe, but the flesh is juicy instead of mealy. Source.
You may know juneberry as serviceberry, sarviceberry, shadbush, shadblow or some variation thereof. The US government chose Saskatoon serviceberry as the official common name for our juneberries (USDA NRCS). I prefer juneberry or sarviceberry. The scientific name is Amelanchier alnifolia.

Sarviceberries grow here in southeast Wyoming, but no specific locations came to mind. So I turned to the internet. Many herbaria (plant specimen repositories) are digitizing their holdings and putting them online, creating digital (virtual) herbaria. These are wonderful resources! I was sure I'd find herbarium records for sarviceberry in our area.
Amelanchier specimen from the Laramie Plains. Rocky Mountain Herbarium Specimen Database.
Fortunately for Wyoming botanists, the Rocky Mountain Herbarium (RM) at the University of Wyoming is in the process of digitizing. This is a truly Herculean task. The RM is the tenth largest herbarium in the US, with about 800,000 specimens. Still, they’ve made enough progress that I found 56 locations for Amelanchier in Albany County:
Juneberry collection locations in Albany County, Wyoming. These are on public land; locations on private land do not display. Rocky Mountain Herbarium Specimen Database.
Some locations are rough approximations—that’s the usual case for older collections. Early botanists didn’t bother so much with collection data. And many of these places won’t be easily accessible until the snow melts. But I found a half dozen specimens from well-described locations near roads, including three with GPS coordinates noted by the collector. I should be able to find these, hopefully in the near future.

Juneberry in June. Black Hills, South Dakota.
The next challenge is identification. Juneberry is easy to recognize in flower or leaf, but I don’t want to wait until May or June. So I had better hone my winter id skills—become familiar with its bark, buds, leaf scars and so forth.

In the University of New Hampshire’s guide to Winter Shrub Identification (Amelanchier includes shrubs and small trees), winter buds are described as “pinkish, long, tapering; bud scales overlapping and twisted at the tip.” Virginia Tech’s fact sheet says they are “about 1/2 inch long with red, imbricate scales that are hairy along the margin.” [Bud scales are small tough modified leaves that protect the bud. Not all plants have them.]
Winter buds of Amelanchier alnifolia (Oregon State Dept. of Horticulture).

Bark descriptions include “smooth, gray or brown, often with longitudinal stripes” (source), and “thin, light brown and tinged with red; smooth or shallowly fissured” (source).
Trunk of Amelanchier alnifolia, about two inches across. Black Hills.

I'm optimistic that I will find at least one juneberry patch in the next few months. Stay tuned for progress reports. They will come monthly as part of the virtual gatherings of tree followers kindly hosted by The Squirrelbasket. The upcoming one began January 7, and lasts a week. See more information and reports here.

Tree-following is always interesting and sometimes an adventure—consider joining us!
Juneberry memories, from a greener time.

18 comments:

  1. That looks a wonderful tree to follow, it looks as if it had lots to see through the seasons and it has a great name too! Sarah x

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    1. thanks, Sarah. I'm looking forward to feasting on juneberries--I hope I find some productive trees.

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  2. Looking forward to following you following this one, Hollis. Though I have to admit it won’t be the biggest learning experience for me, as they’re extremely common here in western Canada. No need to consult a herbarium for localities—in fact, I could follow two of them by looking out the window into my back yard! All the alternative names are a little bemusing; here, there’s only one name: “Saskatoon.” If you tried any of those other names west of Ontario, no one would know what you were talking about. Have fun!

    —Howard

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    1. Interesting, Howard--"Saskatoon" sounds so odd to me! How the USDA picks among all the common names in use regionally is beyond me.
      I have ulterior motives: one of the sites I'm going to check out has interesting geology and photogenic outcrops ... from what I can remember anyway. I haven't been there in years, maybe 30! I hope to find a juneberry to follow there.

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  3. A lovely tree (especially in flower and fruit) and a great idea to hunt one down. I have heard of Amelanchier and I think I have heard of "serviceberry", but of course they would only be ornamental species here, not native to the UK.
    I look forward to your travels over the coming months. It's like being a plant hunter in the old days!
    On a smaller scale, I have also been looking at our city council parks website to see where I can find certain trees, such as Gingko, but I think the tree I visit every month will probably be a rarity I spotted in the main city centre park in autumn. Still not quite decided!
    Winter tree identification is a challenge, isn't it?
    All the best for 2016, whatever your weather :)

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    1. Thanks, squirrelbasket. I'm glad you like the idea of searching for a specific tree. One reason I decided to do this is to get out and see some parts of the county I've ignored!

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    2. Hi Squirrelbasket, if you haven't already checked, sometimes a good place to find areas for individuals of a species is iRecord, or your local BRC.
      I was really surprised to find a Gingko in our town centre a couple of months ago. The autumn leaf colour was lovely :)

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  4. Your sarviceberry (have I got that right?) hunt sounds exciting, and I look forward to seeing it as this is a plant that I know only from books - and not much of that!

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    1. thanks, Amy. I learned "sarviceberry" and "juneberry" when I first moved to Wyoming, to the quite rural northeast part. So I'm fond of those names :-)

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  5. It looks like a lovely tree--I do hope you find one to follow. You mention honing your winter identification skills; one thing that tree following has encouraged me to do is simply to pay more attention. I've never been particularly good a identifying trees, especially in winter dormancy--due to laziness, mostly. I notice bark and limb composition more now. Maybe I'm simply paying more attention. :) All the best with your hunt.

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    1. Thanks, Tina. And I agree! I pay a lot more attention when I'm preparing a post or an article, tree-following or otherwise. I've tried doing the same with no specific purpose ... not there yet.

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  6. Very brave, Hollis, to follow a tree without knowing where one is - Awesome! I hope you find one soon. Are there any wildlife forums that you could ask, or online species recording projects? I imagine you've already thought of these, and other, ideas; but worth a mention (hopefully).
    Hope you're doing well :)

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    1. Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions, Tim. I just now checked iNaturalist, in which I'm involved in the summer. There are only 2 observations in all of Wyoming!, both in the northwest part (I live in the southeast). You have a real advantage over us in terms of active naturalists per square mile!

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    2. I think that most people in Britain have no idea how lucky they are to live in such a well biological recorded country. I've been sending in my records for the past 3 years, but they only amount to a few hundred. There are people that do a much better job and record many thousands. It's such a great help in understanding the state of flora and fauna in our country.
      I hope you manage to find a juneberry close to home.

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  7. You got me thinking. Join this group? Maybe use the group of liquidamber by my front gate ? Our southern hemisphere seasons are tbe opposite of the northern. Could pri ide some interest.

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    1. Liquidamber ... southern hemisphere ... definitely of interest, Field of Gold! I hope you do join us. btw, just checked out your blog -- lots of beauty there where you live.

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  8. Great choice for the tree follow! Looking fw to the spring, summer....
    They are usually called Serviceberries here and I have to admit I wouldn't easily distinguish A. alnifolia from A. canadensis in the winter time ;)
    And come to think about it, around my region I never found any growing wild (yet).

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    1. Thanks, bi. We also have an id issue here, which I didn't mention. I suspect it's a matter of opinion :-( I will learn more ...

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