Red Chokeberryfruit Production Is Easily in Full Grown Sun

Wildflower Spot – October 2013 John Clayton Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society

Aronia arbutifolia

By Helen Hamilton, Past-president of the John Clayton RedChapter, VNPS Chokeberry

This native deciduous shrub of the Rose Fam- ily is truly a four-season plant. In the spring stamens appear, borne on hairy stalks. After the clusters of flowers with 5 petals and about 20 inflowers, late summer abundant and glossy persist red throughout fruits are denselyfall and crowded along the branches. The fruits ripen are usually overlooked by birds until the end of into winter. With a low protein content, they Leaves are glossy and dark green, to 3 inches long,the season minutely when toothed other onfoods the are margins unavailable. and fuzzy, grayish-green beneath. The foliage turns bright red in autumn, similar to that of burning bush (Euonymus alatus). Blooms March-May; fruits September-Novem- ber.

Although the fruits can make tasty jams and bestRed Chokeberryfruit production is easily in full grown sun. in It average, is multi- well-drained soils in full sun to part shade, with because the berries are tart, bitter, and very astringent,jellies, this plantcausing is knownchoking as if “Chokeberry” eaten. (Choke stemmed, and will form small colonies from Cherry [Prunus virginiana] is a common, true rhizomes. The plant will tolerate a range of inconditions every county including in Virginia. boggy soils.The range Growing is from in appears in references as: Pyrus arbutifolia thickets, bogs, swamps and wet woods, it occurs orcherry Photinia with pyrifolia, stone fruits.) emphasizing Red Chokeberry its close also on and near the Coastal Plain, but also in the Pyrus) or as Newfoundland to Florida and Texas, especially Sorbus arbutifolia, to the Mountain-ashes. v relationship with Wild Crabapples ( mountains, to Kentucky and West Virginia.

Photo: Red Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia) taken by Helen Hamilton For more information about native plants visit .