Edible berry?

Question

HelloThere have been many posts about edible berries but I could not findanything that looks like the one I'm after so please forgive a newbie ifthis has been handled before.I have a 6m tree/shrub in my garden with black berries, end of June /beginning of July in central London, England. The tree attracts woodpigeons. I tasted the berries and they are sweet with low acidity and aslight almond aftertaste (cyanide??? heeelp!!!). I made a jam and thendecided to post on this forum before I went ahead and poisoned my wholefamily :-)My guess is that it is some sort of whitebeam (the leaves are slightlywhiter below than above.)I am including a few photos. If anyone out there has sufficientexpertise to give me a definite identification I would be ever sograteful.Jossy+-------------------------------------------------------------------+|Filename:                                            ||Download: ||Filename:                                            ||Download: ||Filename:                                            ||Download: ||Filename:                                            ||Download: |+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

Pat Kiewicz · Accepted Answer

No, I don't think that this is any sort of whitebeam (Sorbus). It looks to me like it could be a serviceberry (one of several North American Amelanchier species or one of the hybrids developed for use in ornamental landscaping.

Quoting the Wikipedia article, "The fruit of several species are excellent to eat raw, tasting somewhat like a blueberry, strongly accented by the almond-like flavour of the seeds."

The ones I've tasted (A. alnifolia, A. x 'Autumn Brilliance') remind me a bit of blueberries, with a hint of prunes.

The winter buds of Amelanchiers are very distinctive; conspicuous, pointed, slightly recurved, and quite diagnostic. (I'm surprised that I wasn't able to find an image of them with a quick search.)

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have become fairly common as ornamental shrubs or small multistemmed trees in the past decade or so.

Jossy · Answer

I forgot to add that the tree has white flowers in the spring that turnto a light pink.+-------------------------------------------------------------------++-------------------------------------------------------------------+

ter001 · Answer

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Edible berry?

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