Adaptable shrub

Plant: Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia)

Why it’s choice: A show of white flowers in spring, tasty dark blue berries in late summer, yellow leaves in fall, serviceberry is more than just serviceable. But this deciduous shrub does serve, and admirably. It’s adaptable to hillsides, roadsides, stream sides and rock slides, not to mention open forests and against the garden fence.

What it does: Serviceberry berries (actually “pomes” in botany-speak, like miniature apples) ripen in purplish-black clusters, to feed happy and showy birds such as orioles, goldfinches and chickadees. Serviceberry’s rhizomes will knit together underground, making a nice stand and helping control erosion, but it’s not aggressive about it.

Where to see it: Watch for the flash of its white flowers as you drive through hillsides and forests in spring. See dwarfed shrubs on talus slopes throughout the sagebrush-steppe.

The facts: Serviceberry grows as an open, erect shrub, usually 6 to 12 feet tall unless browsed heavily by deer or elk or cattle. Once the shrub is well established, it can tolerate some munching. Happiest in sun, it can handle some shade. Be sure to give it a couple of summers of water when it’s first in the garden, but then serviceberry can make it through drier times.

And, how about those berries? Throw a mesh net over serviceberry in late summer to save some berries from the birds. Then decide whether to eat them fresh, dry them like raisins, bake them into a pie, boil up some jelly, or pound them with meat into pemmican.