Here, you see the spring flower fireworks of one of our native Shadblow Trees yesterday. These joyful trees, part of the Serviceberry family of bushy trees, come in many native and domestic varieties in the United States, but our state biologists say that the native species that we’re seeing is Canadian serviceberry, Amelannchier canadensis.
A closer view shows that the trees produce small pyramids of white-petaled flowers and bronzy green leaves now. In the summer, they’ll produce purple, blue, and pink berries.
The tree has many common names, but the two most frequently heard here have unusual origins. It was named a Shadblow because it flowered when Atlantic Shad (River Herring) would be running in large numbers up the Hudson and other Rivers. (One of the old English origins of the word “blow” translates into “to swell”; thus, there was a swelling of Shad.)
The name Serviceberry also reflects conditions in the Northeast and Canada. Settlors here couldn’t efficiently bury their dead at least six feet in the winter until the ground thawed at about the time that this tree flowered. Relatives held last services for their winter dead about this time of the year, used these flowers, and lowered the previously-frozen bodies into freshly-dug soil. (Brooklin, Maine)