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Aronia melanocarpa
Also called Black Chokecherry
Black chokeberry is a hardy, suckering deciduous shrub native to eastern North America, grown for its glossy leaves, autumn color and edible black berries. It grows best in full sun to part shade and is easy to propagate from summer cuttings.
Aronia melanocarpa, called the black chokeberry, is a species of shrubs in the rose family native to eastern North America, ranging from Canada to the central United States, from Newfoundland west to Ontario and Minnesota, south as far as Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia. This plant has been introduced and is cultivated in Europe.
It is a branching shrub with glossy dark green leaves that take on a red color in the autumn; it grows well in the sun and part-shade, often to heights of six feet (1.8 m) or more, forming clumps by means of stems rising from the roots. Its flowers are white or pink, appearing at the end of spring and producing black fruits in September. The plants are relatively easy to clone and root, with summer being the optimal time to take cuttings. Some birds eat the berries.
Aronia melanocarpa is notable for its rich phytochemical composition, particularly its high content of polyphenolic compounds. The fruit contains significant concentrations of anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins, and phenolic acids. Total phenolic content varies depending on cultivation, processing, and ripeness, placing the fruit among the plant sources with the highest recorded concentration of these chemical constituents.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aronia melanocarpa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
