Amelanchier alnifolia

Amelanchier alnifolia, also known as Saskatoon Berry, is a beautiful fruit bush native to North America, long appreciated for its delicious and highly nutritious edible fruits, which are called 'saskatoon' by Native Americans. After its charming white spring flowering, it produces clusters of dark and sweet fruits, with a flavour reminiscent of blueberries, apples, almonds, and hazelnuts. They can be harvested from June to August and can be eaten fresh, dried, in jelly, jam, or in desserts and pastries. Amelanchiers are easy-to-grow and highly rewarding shrubs or small trees. They make excellent hedge bushes, hedgerows, or countryside hedges.

Native to North America, from Alaska to Maine, Amelanchier with alder-like leaves is a sturdy shrub of the large Rosaceae family, largely spared by most pests and resistant to extreme cold. In nature, it can be found along watercourses as well as in much less favourable environments, such as rocky slopes exposed to the wind. It prefers slightly acidic and moist soil, but it is adaptable and can tolerate relatively dry and hot summers once established. To achieve a good harvest, it is advisable to provide it with fertile soil and additional water if necessary.

It has a bushy and branched habit, taller than wide. It grows rather slowly, reaching about 3 m (9.8 ft) in height and 2 m (6.6 ft) in width at maturity. Its bark is grey to brown, sometimes tinged with red. Smooth when young, it becomes rougher with age. Flowering is abundant in April-May, at the ends of the bare young branches or those already adorned with young leaves, depending on the climate. Flowering and fruiting occur quickly in this amelanchier, at around 3-4 years of age. The white flowers with 5 petals and yellow stamens, 2 cm (0.8 in) in diameter, are grouped in clusters along the branches. They are followed by edible and globose fruits that resemble blueberries, called pomes. They turn almost black when ripe, in June. Their pleasantly sweet and aromatic flavour and juicy pulp make them suitable for consumption fresh or cooked, in jam or jelly. Recent analyses confirm their high content of antioxidant molecules, vitamins, and minerals. Saskatoons have a limited shelf life. They can be consumed fresh, frozen, dried, or preserved for later use. A single plant is sufficient to obtain a harvest ranging from 3 kg to 7-8 kg of fruits depending on the soil fertility, but it is often recommended to plant two plants to optimise fruit formation.

The young spring leaves are fuzzy, becoming tougher as they mature. They have a pretty green-blue hue and turn yellow in autumn before falling. Measuring up to 5 cm (2 in) in length, they are oval-shaped, with dentate edges, and arranged alternately on the branches.

Amelanchier alnifolia is a sturdy and undemanding fruit bush, as charming as it is deserving of a place in a countryside, free or fruit hedge. It can also be used as a background plant in perennial or lower shrub borders. It pairs well with ornamental apple and cherry trees, deciduous euonymus, Japanese quince, spring-blooming spirea, hawthorns, medlar, prunus, and many others. Create a fruit hedge by combining it, for example, with Lonicera kamtschatica 'Sweet Myberry', garden blackberries, currants, cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon), blueberries, raspberries, Aronia, Japanese goumi, and black elder.

The name 'Saskatoon', an anglicisation of a word from the Cree language, can be translated as "the fruit of the tree with many branches". This fruit gave its name to the Canadian city of Saskatoon.