purple chokeberry

Photo: Kurt Stüber [1] — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 4 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

A natural hybrid between red and black chokeberry (A. arbutifolia × A. melanocarpa), with dark purple-black fruit intermediate in astringency between its two parents — still best cooked with sugar into jam, jelly, syrup or juice rather than eaten raw in quantity.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer–autumn

Mature size

Upright suckering shrub 1–3 m, intermediate between its parents

Light

Partial to full sun — best fruit in sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Eastern North America — the natural hybrid of black and red chokeberry, occurring wherever the two parents' ranges overlap, from Nova Scotia south to the Appalachians.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

20–40 cm/year — medium.

Spacing

180 cm (71 in) apart — about 3.2 m² (35 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, oval to obovate, finely toothed, and intermediate between its parents — thinly hairy beneath rather than either glabrous or densely felted — with the genus's dark glands along the midrib.

Root system

Shallow, fibrous and strongly suckering, spreading by underground runners to form colonies — excellent for stabilising banks, and easy to increase by division.

Fruit description

Round purple-black berries 7–10 mm across, intermediate between its parents in colour and size, astringent raw and used cooked.

Propagation

Division of rooted suckers is much the easiest route. Softwood cuttings in early summer root well; seed needs about three months cold stratification and, being apomictic, comes largely true.

Pollination

Self-fertile and apomictic — a single plant crops reliably with no partner needed, and its seed largely reproduces the parent. One cultivar is sufficient for a full crop. Insect-pollinated by bees.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.