Shadblow Blossoms

Yet another harbinger of spring: shadblow blossoms trumpeting seasonality in all its ephemeral enthusiasm. Bud burst barely detectable one day, and a triumphant flourish of white blossoms the next. Such celebratory confetti festionibg woodland meadows and prettying the perimeter of fields.

So quick were the coming and going of this spring’s shadblow blossoms that I missed my chance to make a new photograph. So instead I offer you this image of a shadblow bursting into blossom 13 years ago while I was clearing a meadow in Rosslyn’s backland.

Here’s a tighter closeup.

Glorious, right? Reminds me of the conclusion of Linda Pastan’s poem, “Shadblow”. 

these trees
in the woods break

into flower--small, white
flags surrendering
to the season.

— Linda Pastan, “Shadblow” (Source: Best-Poems.net)

Such surrendering that I’m drunk with daily signs of seasonality from trillium and jack-in-the-pulpit blooming to spargelzeit to wild ramps. Soon hummingbirds will return and we’ll plant the garden. Such awesome reawakenings!

Shadblow By Any Other Name

As it turns out, this early spring bloomer is known by multiple aliases. I’ve always known it as shadblow, but juneberry is also common.

Here’s a more learned look at the names and charms of this beguiling beauty.

[A] regional attraction has just opened… the blossoming of a widespread, though strangely little-known, early-flowering plant… Variously known as serviceberry, shadbush, shadwood, shadblow, Saskatoon, juneberry and wild-plum, it is a small-to-medium size tree that also answers to amelanchier canadensis, its botanical name. Of those options, I prefer juneberry even though its fruit may ripen in early July in northern New York State.

It’s the first native woody plant to produce conspicuous flowers, and its white blossoms can be seen on roadsides, in fencerows and on forest edges throughout our area right now. The smooth, gray-silver bark is attractive in its own right. Depending on conditions, juneberries may grow as a multi-stem clump, but more often develop as single-trunk trees reaching 25 to 40 feet tall. Not only are its early blossoms an aesthetic treat, they’re advertising the location of a source of berries that boast more nutrient value than almost any other native fruit. (Source: Paul Hetzler, “First Blooms: Juneberries,The Adirondack Almanack)

Cheers to one of the first flourishes of springtime; cheers to shadblow blossoms!