Perennial plant profiles

Amelanchier stolonifera, running juneberry

We can think of at least 180 great forest garden & perennial crops for cold climate Sweden.  Want to hear about them? Over the course of the next year we will profile 5 a week on the blog. Perennial plants and crops offer a low energy, oil & resource input based foundation for future-proof agricultures. By default if an agriculture is to be called regenerative the bottom line is that it must be soil building, not soil depleting. Relentless deep tillage & poor soil husbandry (wifery?!) contributes to the majority of the 24 billion tons of topsoil lost every year on planet water.  We are going to be focused on holistic polyculture grazing and perennial production at ridgedale over most of the site as this represents the most effective way to restore our degraded landscape, produce high value produce and ensure the future resource base we are managing holistically for in our decision making. 

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Genus Amelanchier 
Species stolonifera 
Common Name running juneberry
Form shrub
Habit running
Origin N North America
Light sun
Moisture mesic 
Uses fruit

Amelanchier stolonifera is a deciduous Shrub growing to 1.5 m.
The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees.  The plant is self-fertile. 

The edible fruit can be eaten raw or cooked.  The fruit is sweet and juicy with a good flavour that has a hint of apple.  The fruit is rich in iron and copper.

Dislikes calcareous soils, preferring a rich loamy soil in a sunny position or semi-shade, but can thrive in most soils that are not too water-logged.  Grows well in heavy clay soils and can tolerate dry soils. All members of this genus have edible fruits and, whilst this is dry and uninteresting in some species, in many others it is sweet and juicy. The main draw-back to this genus is that birds also enjoy the fruit. 

Produces suckers quite freely, the plant forms thickets. When propagated by these suckers, the new plants can begin producing a crop of fruit in their second year.

The root bark has been used as a tonic.

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OUR FRIENDS AT PFAF HAVE AN AMAZING DATABASE OF SPECIES (UK BASED);

Amelanchier stolonifera