Shadbloom

Dolly Sods Wilderness, Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia, USA, 12 May 2022

Some ten months ago now we drove to Dolly Sods because we’d been told that the spring shadbloom would be spectacular. It was — the blossoms gleamed white amid the otherwise wintery mountain vista — and we hope this year’s bloom will be just as good.

Shad refers to Amelanchier, a genus that includes about 20 species of small deciduous trees and shrubs. They’re also known commonly as shadbush, shadwood, shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry or sarvis, juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum, wild-plum, or chuckley pear, and probably a lot of other odd names that I’ve never heard.

We have three small Amelanchier canadensis in our back yard, but they are far too young and small to put on any kind of a show. I guess I just have to wait for them to grow, encouragement for a long life, I suppose. But in the meantime I can pop off to the mountains in the spring to see the big show.