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Shrubs. Stems 1-20, 1--7 m, single-stemmed or in small clumps ; twigs glabrous at flowering. Leaves conduplicate in bud; usually unfolded, green, and glabrous by flowering; petioles 6--22 mm; blades sometimes abaxially pale, elliptic to suborbiculate, 1.5--5 x 1.5--3 cm, coriaceous, bases subcordate to truncate, margins dentate mostly in distal 1/2, less commonly to near base, with 3--6 teeth per cm or entire, lateral veins 7--13 pairs, remaining distinct to the margin and not anastomosing, truncate and sometimes mucronate to acute, surfaces glabrous . Inflorescences 3--10-flowered, erect or ascending, 2--5 cm, only proximalmost pedicel subtended by leaf. Pedicels glabrous, proximalmost to 1.2 cm. Flowers: hypanthia shallowly campanulate or saucer-shaped, 3--5 mm diam.; sepals usually recurving after flowering, 3.5--5 mm, adaxially hairy; petals white, obovate to oblanceolate, (12--)16--25 x (3--)5--7 mm, not andropetalous; stamens about 20; styles 4--5; ovary summit rounded, glabrous or sparsely hairy or with a ring of hairs at base of styles. Pomes bluish black, about 10 mm diam., sweet.

Basaltic ledges, cliffs, and bluffs along rivers, stony soils, streambeds, riverbanks, copses, mountainsides; 600--2300m

(see Systematics page for references cited)
Amelanchier cusickii has the longest petals of any North American Amelanchier. Leaves that are glabrous upon expanding and relatively small plus mostly glabrous ovary summits are also useful in identifying it. Amelanchier cusickii flowers 10 to 15 days before A. alnifolia, which suggests that these two are genetically distinct. G. N. Jones (1946) noted that A. alnifolia and A. cusickii frequently grow together but that there is “no evidence of hybridization.” It should be noted that Jones discounted hybridization in the genus, even denying hybrid status to A. x\neglecta.