Prunus virginiana, commonly called bitter-berry, chokecherry, Virginia bird cherry, and western chokecherry (also black chokecherry for P.virginiana var. demissa), is a North American species of bird cherry (Prunus subgenus Padus).

Forming a tree generally up to tall, the leaves are oval, green, and smooth, with racemes of white flowers and red to black drupes. The unripe fruits are toxic, as is the stone and much of the plant, but the ripe fruits are edible, being part of Native American cuisine.

Description

Chokecherry is a suckering shrub or small tree typically growing to tall—rarely to —and a substantial width of . The trunk is up to in diameter. The leaves are oval, pointed, dark green above with a paler underside, smooth on both surfaces, in length, and wide, with a serrated margin. The stems rarely exceed in length.

In late spring, well after leaf emergence, white flowers are produced in racemes measuring long, eventually growing up to 15cm. The racemes are about wide, with individual flowers up to about when open.

The fruits (drupes) are about in diameter, range in color from bright red to black, and possess a very astringent taste, being both somewhat sour and somewhat bitter. They get darker and marginally sweeter as they ripen. They each contain a large stone.

Chemistry

Chokecherries are very high in antioxidant pigment compounds, such as anthocyanins. They share this property with eastern North America's Prunus serotina (black cherry), contributing to confusion.

Similar species

The chokecherry is closely related to P.serotina, which can reach tall and has larger, wholly dark green leaves with numerous blunt edges along the margin, in addition to darker fruit.

Taxonomy

The name chokecherry is also used for the related P. maackii (Manchurian cherry or Amur chokecherry).

Varieties

• Prunus virginiana var. virginiana (eastern chokecherry)

• Prunus virginiana var. demissa (Nutt. ex Torr. & A.Gray) Torr. (western chokecherry)

• Prunus virginiana var. melanocarpa (A.Nelson) Sarg.

Distribution and habitat

The natural historic range of P.virginiana includes most of Canada (including Northwest Territories, but excluding Yukon, Nunavut, and Labrador), most of the United States (including Alaska, but excluding some states in the Southeast), and northern Mexico (Sonora, Chihuahua, Baja California, Durango, Zacatecas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León).

It can be found in habitats ranging from streambanks to montane forests.

Ecology

The wild chokecherry is often considered a pest, as it is a host for the tent caterpillar, a threat to other fruit plants. It is also a larval host to the black-waved flannel moth, the blinded sphinx, the cecropia moth, the coral hairstreak, the cynthia moth, the elm sphinx, Glover's silkmoth, the hummingbird clearwing moth, the imperial moth, the Io moth, the polyphemus moth, the promethea moth, the red-spotted purple, the small-eyed sphinx, the spring azure, the striped hairstreak, the tiger swallowtail, the twin-spotted sphinx, and Weidemeyer's admiral.

Many wildlife, including birds and game animals, eat the berries. Moose, elk, mountain sheep, deer and rabbits eat the foliage, twigs, leaves, and buds. Deer and elk sometimes browse the twigs profusely, not letting the plant grow above knee height. The leaves serve as food for caterpillars of various Lepidoptera.

Cultivation

The chokecherry has a number of cultivars. 'Canada Red' and 'Schubert' have leaves that mature to purple and turn orange and red in the autumn. 'Goertz' has a nonastringent, so palatable, fruit. Research at the University of Saskatchewan seeks to find or create new cultivars to increase production and processing.

Toxicity

The stone of the fruit is poisonous. Chokecherry, including the foliage, is toxic to moose, cattle, goats, deer, and other animals with segmented stomachs (rumens), especially after the leaves have wilted (such as after a frost or after branches have been broken); wilting releases cyanide and makes the plant sweet. About of foliage can be fatal. In horses, symptoms include heavy breathing, agitation, and weakness.

The similar fruits of P. caroliniana are also somewhat toxic.

Uses

The chokecherry fruit can be eaten when fully ripe, but otherwise contains a toxin. The fruit can be used to make jam or syrup, but the bitter nature of the fruit requires sugar to sweeten the preserves. Chokecherry is also used to make wine in the Western United States, mainly in the Dakotas and Utah, as well as in Manitoba, Canada.

For many Indigenous tribes of the Northern Rockies, Northern Plains, and boreal forest region of Canada and the US, chokecherries are the most important fruit in their traditional diets and part of pemmican, a staple traditional food. The Plains Indians pound up the whole fruits—including the pits—in a mortar, from which they make sun-baked cakes.

The bark of the root is made into an asperous-textured concoction used to ward off or treat colds, fever and stomach maladies by Indigenous people. The inner bark of the chokecherry, as well as red osier dogwood, or alder, is also used by some tribes in ceremonial smoking mixtures, known as kinnikinnick. Nlaka'pamux traditional knowledge holds that when chokecherry starts blooming, bitterroot is ready to be dug up and harvested.

In culture

In 2007, North Dakota governor John Hoeven signed a bill naming the chokecherry the state's official fruit.

See also

• Choke pear

References

External links

• North Dakota State University Agriculture, Chokecherry

• Nutrition Facts for Chokecherries

• Flora of Pennsylvania