Lodging - Home Page

Shrubs. Stems 1--40, 1--4 m, suckering and densely clumped; twigs glabrous by flowering. Leaves conduplicate in bud; mostly expanded and unfolded, green, abaxially glabrous or sparsely pubescent at flowering; petioles 10--30 mm; blades abaxially green, broadly oblong to suborbiculate, 3--6 x 1.5--5 cm, thin , bases cordate or rounded, margins serrate to or nearly to base with 3--6 teeth per cm or subentire, lateral veins 6--13, anastomosing and becoming indistinct near margin , apices rounded to subtruncate or short-pointed, surfaces glabrous. Inflorescences 5--15-flowered, erect or ascending, 3--6 cm, proximalmost 1--3 pedicels subtended by large leaf. Pedicels glabrous, proximalmost 1--2 cm. Flowers: hypanthia campanulate, 3--4 mm diam.; sepals recurved after flowering, 1.5--3.5 mm, adaxially glabrous; petals white, oblanceolate, 6--10 x 2--3.5 mm, not andropetalous; stamens 20; styles 5; ovary summit rounded, densely hairy. Pomes blackish, +/- 10 mm diam., sweet.

Mostly calcareous shores, gravel beaches, cliffs, ledges, alluvial woods; 0--300 m

(see Systematics page for references cited)
K. M. Wiegand (1912, p. 139) considered Amelanchier gaspensis to be “perplexing” because it “varies much in stature and habit, as well as in leaf-outline and dentition. The leaves suggest an intermediate condition between this species [A. sanguinea] and A. humilis especially in the venation. In its more glabrous nature it approaches A. florida [A. alnifolia].” Relationships among A. gaspensis, A. humilis, and A. sanguinea were discussed by M. L. Fernald and C. A. Weatherby (1931), who emphasized pubescence of the inflorescence axis and pedicels: A. humilis is especially hairy, whereas A. gaspensis is mostly glabrous.
We have studied Amelanchier on the Gaspé Peninsula and have not been certain about collecting A. gaspensis. Specimens from northern Maine assigned to this species do not match it in all respects. E. G. Voss (1985) included this species in A. sanguinea.