Stoloniferous colonial shrub 3-10(-15) dm; lvs a quarter to half-grown at anthesis and then densely tomentose beneath, at maturity glabrous and pale beneath, ovate to oblong, elliptic, or obovate-oblong, usually 2-5 cm, acute to obtuse or rounded, finely and sharply toothed, the lateral veins curved forward, branched and anastomosing near the margin, not definitely prolonged into the teeth, the teeth almost always more than twice as many as the veins; racemes short and dense; pedicels thinly pubescent, soon glabrescent, the lowest 7-15 mm; sep soon recurved or reflexed from near the middle; pet mostly 5-10 mm, half as wide; ovary tomentose at the summit; mostly polyploid. Dry woods, old fields, and rocky banks; Que. and Me. to Minn., s. to N.Y., Mich., Io., and in the mts. to N.C. May, June. (A. mucronata; A. stolonifera) Occasional plants of no. 8 [Amelanchier arborea (F. Michx.) Fernald] with the ovary ±tomentose on top will key here but are tall, non-colonial shrubs.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
Diagnostic Traits: Shrub; leaves tomentose when young, glabrous to sparsely hairy at maturity; leaf margin near petiole with mostly 4–7 teeth per cm; lower pedicels of raceme to 1.5 cm; sepals reflexed; petals usually <10 mm long; ovary inferior, its top hairy.
