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Amelanchier ovalis; photograph (c) Louis Aureglia, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Louis Aureglia, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-12

Amelanchier ovalis Medik.

Serviceberry; Snowy mespilus

Rosaceae · Austria, Belgium +27

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Amelanchier ovalis, photograph (c) Louis Aureglia, some rights reserved (CC BY)Amelanchier ovalis, photograph (c) Catherine Faber, some rights reserved (CC BY)Amelanchier ovalis, photograph (c) Catherine Faber, some rights reserved (CC BY)Amelanchier ovalis, photograph (c) Matteo Martini, some rights reserved (CC BY)Amelanchier ovalis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAmelanchier ovalis, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 77 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-10.4°C
Record low -17.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,086mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
9–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Amelanchier ovalis, commonly known as snowy mespilus (a name which is also attached to the related A. lamarckii) or serviceberry, is a deciduous shrub in the family Rosaceae. Its pome fruits are edible and can be eaten raw or cooked. The species is native to central and southern Europe, as well as North Africa and the Middle East.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Amelanchier ovalis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Amelanchier

Amelanchier, also known as shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry, juneberry, saskatoon, sugarplum, wild-plum or chuckley pear, is a genus of about 20 species of deciduous-leaved shrubs and small trees in the rose family (Rosaceae) that produce a pome fruit.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Amelanchier", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (769 mm of 1,053 mm) takes 8 months, April to June and August to December. Mean temperature moves 18.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: February to June and October to December.

Rain

1,053 mm in the median year at the habitat, 769 mm of it April to June and August to December. Wettest month September at 104 mm, driest month February at 60 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 680 mm to 1,667 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,086 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,053 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 6, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -10.4 °C, the absolute minimum -17.8 °C, 3,016 frost nights in 44 years, 68.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -3.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -10.3 °C to 1.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.3 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -639 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Amelanchier ovalis through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -3.5 °C; 1,053 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost31.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-17.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 9–40RH 58–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 557 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C4 / -1–95 / 1–109 / 4–1412 / 7–1617 / 12–2021 / 16–2523 / 19–2823 / 19–2819 / 15–2314 / 11–188 / 4–135 / -1–10
Night °C-4 / -10–1-3 / -9–10 / -6–43 / -2–67 / 2–1011 / 6–1413 / 8–1713 / 8–1710 / 5–146 / 1–101 / -5–5-2 / -9–2
Rain mm74 / 41–11760 / 37–10170 / 41–12288 / 59–137103 / 65–16194 / 44–17280 / 21–18788 / 36–184104 / 62–157101 / 68–16899 / 58–15792 / 54–146
DLI11 / 8–1418 / 13–2126 / 21–3033 / 29–3737 / 33–4140 / 35–4640 / 34–4735 / 29–4027 / 22–3118 / 14–2212 / 8–159 / 6–12
RH %61 / 57–6560 / 57–6359 / 56–6259 / 56–6159 / 56–6259 / 54–6258 / 52–6259 / 53–6361 / 56–6462 / 59–6562 / 59–6662 / 58–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 557 grid cells holding the 712 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 883:3819 (45.825, 10.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 557 distinct grid cells holding 712 of the 712 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 883:3819 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 46.00_11.250, lapse-corrected -639 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 464 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Krym, Algeria, Morocco, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, East Aegean Is., Iraq, Turkey · introduced: Norway, Czechoslovakia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker43.954, 5.744 · in the densest population, 509 records (71% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 718 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 712 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 206 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 209 km away. 6 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 7998885 (Pyrus amelanchier (L.) Lam., 1779): Kew's file holds it as Pyrus amelanchier (L.) Du Roi (synonym under Amelanchier ovalis Medik.); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 718 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Amelanchier ovalis, photograph 1did not loadAmelanchier ovalis, photograph 2did not loadAmelanchier ovalis, photograph 3did not loadAmelanchier ovalis, photograph 4did not loadAmelanchier ovalis, photograph 5did not loadAmelanchier ovalis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Louis Aureglia, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Catherine Faber, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Matteo Martini, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Minuartia mucronata Minuartia mucronata Red Sandwort Photo: CC0, author not statedCephalanthera rubra Cephalanthera rubra Red helleborine Photo: CC0, author not statedPentanema helveticum Pentanema helveticum Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Céline HamelSalix eleagnos Salix eleagnos Elaeagnus willow Photo: CC BY-SA, Jean Claude DelareuxHepatica nobilis Hepatica nobilis Liverleaf Photo: CC BY, Ondřej KřivanAcer opalus Acer opalus Italian Maple Photo: CC BY, Patrick Delhalt

Other Amelanchier 17 in the reference

Amelanchier alnifolia Amelanchier alnifolia Pacific serviceberry Photo: CC BY, Gavin Slater Amelanchier amabilis Rosaceae Amelanchier arborea Amelanchier arborea Downy serviceberry Photo: CC0, author not statedAmelanchier asiatica Amelanchier asiatica Asian serviceberry Photo: CC BY-SA, KENPEIAmelanchier bartramiana Amelanchier bartramiana Mountain serviceberry Photo: CC0, author not statedAmelanchier canadensis Amelanchier canadensis Canadian serviceberry Photo: CC0, author not statedAmelanchier humilis Amelanchier humilis Low serviceberry Photo: CC0, author not statedAmelanchier interior Amelanchier interior Inland serviceberry Photo: CC BY, Ryan SorrellsAmelanchier intermedia Amelanchier intermedia Purple serviceberry Photo: CC BY, Daniel CarrAmelanchier laevis Amelanchier laevis Allegheny serviceberry Photo: CC BY, Blake RossAmelanchier × lamarckii Amelanchier × lamarckii Juneberry Photo: CC BY-SA, nicolas meyerAmelanchier nantucketensis Amelanchier nantucketensis Nantucket shadbush Photo: CC BY, Jake McCumber all 18 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Amelanchier ovalis subsp. vulgaris; Amelanchier vulgaris var. zapateri; Mespilus amelanchier; Pyrus amelanchier. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
Medik.
Native to
Austria, Belgium, Germany +26
Wild records
718 in range · 206 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence search API; 0 records of GBIF's key 7998885, Pyrus amelanchier (L.) Lam., 1779 (Kew's file holds it as Pyrus amelanchier (L.) Du Roi (synonym under Amelanchier ovalis Medik.)): GBIF occurrence search API; 6 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 46.00_11.250, lapse-corrected -639 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Amelanchier ovalis Medik. (the item's: IPNI 30073474-2, POWO 721244-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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