Plant · P-384

Saskatoon

Amelanchier alnifolia

Saskatoon is a suckering shrub of cool-summer prairie and montane North America, producing a sweet, apple-flavored fruit with notes of grape and almond that is eaten fresh, dried, or turned into jam, pie, syrup and wine - traditionally the fruit in pemmican. It spreads into a thicket from deeply buried rhizomes that resprout hard even after fire, so a planting needs a mown or grazed margin to stay in bounds. Its fruit and browse are magnets for deer and other wild ungulates, worth planning around if something more vulnerable is nearby. It needs real winter cold and a cool growing season - long, hot, humid summers are outside what it is documented to tolerate.