Common serviceberry, without a doubt, is the most widely dis- 

 tributed and best known of the 19 or more species of Amglaawkier 

 occurring in the West. Locally, and perhaps rather generally, it 

 may be known as saskatoon, alderleaf sarvisberry, western service- 

 berry, western juneberry, or pigeonberry. It is a low shrub, from 

 3 to 15 feet in height, or else a small tree up to 20 or more feet 

 tall, with dark grayish twigs and usually dark green foliage. The 

 leaves are generally elliptic or rounded, distinctly toothed above 

 the middle, hairless on the upper side and short-woolly underneath 

 when young, but becoming hairless in age. However, the species is 

 variable, and its exact delimitation has not been determined, espe- 

 cially with reference to the closely related and very similar Pacific 

 serviceberry (A, florida). These two forms are so much alike that 

 many authors consider them as one species or regard A. florida 

 simply as a variety of A. alwfolia. The chief difference is that 

 Pacific serviceberry is more like to be aborescent, the leaves are 

 thinner, narrower, and less hairy underneath, and the flowers tend 

 to be larger and showier. A. florida occurs from British Columbia 

 and Alaska to California, Montana, and Colorado, but is most com- 

 mon in the Northwest. A. alnifolia extends beyond this range, 

 being found from Alaska south and east to western Ontario, Michi- 

 gan, the Dakotas, New Mexico, and California. However, they are 

 so much alike that the remainder of this discussion concerning com- 

 mon serviceberry also refers to Pacific serviceberry. 



The wide distribution of common serviceberry is largely due to 

 its unusual ability to grow under a great variety of environmental 

 conditions. It is found on dry, rocky slopes in the full sunlight 

 or in the partial shade of coniferous timber ; it also occurs on moist 

 deep and fertile soils frequently forming an underbrush in aspen 

 and lodgepole pine. It is probably most common in the upper lim- 

 its of the ponderosa-pine belt, but it occurs from near sea level in 

 Washington and northward to over 9,000 feet in the Sierras and 

 Rockies. Sometimes this species is locally abundant, but it generally 

 appears more or less scattered along with such other shrubs as man- 

 zanita, thimbleberry, Gambel oak, and cherries. In the shrub form, 

 common serviceberry is a low, many-stemmed plant, often having a 

 spread of 6 feet, or more. Under favorable conditions, however, 

 the young plants may be sparsely stemmed and soon assume a tree 

 habit of growth. In many cases, the shrubby specimens also even- 

 tually attain treelike proportions by the gradual growth of a few 

 central and erect stems, and the subsequent dying out of the short and 

 bushy growth. 



Common serviceberry merits its position among the more valuable 

 browse plants on the western range, due to its wide distribution, 

 palatability, and ready availability to livestock. Throughout most 

 of the West, this plant ranks as fair to fairly good forage for cattle 

 and good for sheep, although *in Colorado and on the eastern side 

 of the Rockies generally, it is usually poor to fair feed for cattle 

 and fair to fairly good for sheep. On the average range, it is 

 browsed chiefly after midsummer, when the more palatable grasses 

 and weeds have already been utilized or matured, but on browse 



