North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Hector Black <hblack@twlakes.net>]

Hi Ginda,
    Sure sounds like a serviceberry to me.  Some of them can be quite good
but the wild ones usually not.
Hector Black  zone 6 middle tn

----- Original Message -----
From: <list@ginda.us>
To: "NAFEX" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2003 7:07 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] Mystery berry - can you help me identify this?


> While looking for wild blueberries that weren't quite ripe in the lakes
> region of New Hampshire last week, my husband and I came upon a a small
> tree bearing fruits that looked a lot like blueberries.  It was near
> peak, with lots of ripe berries and lots of ripening berries.  The tree
> was about 15' tall, with a central trunk about 2-4" thick (not very
> round).  It was growing on the edge of an island, leaning out over the
> lake.   The bark was smooth.
>
> The leaves were "leaf shaped" simple leaves, a little bigger than the
> wild blueberries, but within the range of sizes I've seen for domestic
> highbush blueberries.  They were softer in texture than a blueberry
> leaf - less leathery - and has tiny sharp serrations pointing towards
> the tip.  Each little point was a couple of millimeters long (maybe
> less) and they were fairly uniform.
>
> The berries were large for wild blueberries, although smaller than
> domestic blueberries.  They grew in loose clusters of about 20 or more,
> and each berry has a prominent blossom scar, with long "tags" of skin
> around it.  We each ate a couple fresh, and they tasted similar to
> blueberries, but not as good.  A couple days later, when neither of us
> got sick, we ate a lot more.  They were pleasant, but seedy and a bit
> bland.  They were not terribly popular around the table, but that may
> have been partly because I couldn't say for sure what they were.
>
> My first guess is some kind of service berry, although it didn't
> exactly match any of the ameliamchor in the only tree book I could
> find.  I have a good photo of a twig with fruit that I can e-mail to
> anyone who wants to take a stab at identifying it, but I don't know how
> to post to NAFEX space, and I think we are requested not to send
> attachments to this list.
>
> Thanks for any ideas,
> Ginda
>
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