Spiked serviceberry

Family

Rosaceae

Habit

Shrub

Height

2.5 m

Spread

2 m

Growth

medium

Lifespan

50 years

First yield

after 3 years

Hardiness

zone 2–8

Shade tolerance

partial shade

Soil

Sand, Silt, Loam, Clay

Soil moisture

dry – very moist

pH

4.5 – 7.5

Times apply to the northern hemisphere in a temperate climate and shift with altitude and cultivar.

Grows on free-draining, acid to neutral sandy soils in sun to partial shade and copes well with poor ground and drought. Root suckers build dense, steadily expanding stands — in the garden only with a root barrier, or where exactly that is wanted. It takes pruning well; removed shoots are replaced from the suckers.

Flowers early in the year and is visited by insects; the fruit is readily taken by birds. Seed dispersal by birds is the main reason it spreads so quickly beyond plantings.

Across the European nursery trade this is what is almost always sold as the native snowy mespilus, although it is neither native nor comparable in flavour: the fruit tastes bitter. The reason lies in propagation — root suckers and cuttings make it far easier to raise than the true native species. Escaped from plantings, it is naturalised across much of Europe and regarded as invasive there, forming dense stands from root suckers while birds carry its seed far and wide.

A hybridogenous species of North American descent with no original wild range in Europe; escaped from plantings and now naturalised across much of central, northern and eastern Europe.

Open pine woodland, woodland edges, heaths, dunes, banks and railway embankments on dry, nutrient-poor sandy soils in sun to partial shade; from the lowlands to middle elevations.