Chokeberry, Aronia Medik., not to be confused with chokecherry, Prunus virginiana L., comes in red, purple, and black fruited species. Red chokeberry, Aronia arbutifolia (L.) Pers., is most common and is notable for having fuzzy undersides on the leaves and fruit that persist on the shrub. Black chokeberry, A. melanocarpa (Michx.) Elliot, has glabrous underside on the leaves, which is the definitive key, and fruits that drop after ripening. Purple chokeberry, A. floribunda (Lindl.) Spach, known synonymously as A. atropurpurea Britton, is intermediate between red and black chokeberry in color, pubescence, and fruit retention, and it may even be an intrageneric hybrid species synonymously known as A. ×prunifolia (Marshall) Rehder. The most interesting species is black chokeberry.
I first
learned about black chokeberry during a Little River Canyon Field School workshop, Trees and
Shrubs of Little River Canyon, which I took to learn what other unexpected species, since unknown to me, could be
found in the area after being surprised by a buffalo nut, Pyrularia pubera Michx. During the workshop when a red chokeberry was seen black
chokeberry was mentioned as being known only from from
Shortly thereafter I went to the new Costco
store in
I have since started growing black chokeberries after salvaging plants from another population I discovered in 2006, just before most of it was threatened with destruction by a bulldozer where only one of the plants would have survived since it is all that remains of those I left along the margin of the area to be affected. Unfortunately most of the transplants were also lost due to various circumstances such as conditions ranging from it being too wet where planted then conditions changing to a record drought, meanwhile the equivalent replacement cost of hundreds of dollars worth of plants were taken out by my dad using a lawn mower, string trimmer, and/or herbicide, which is typical regardless of how well the plants are marked ranging from where he “[C]ut the weeds next to the stake” to “[D]idn't mow over what was planted between the two [adjacent] stakes” after already knocking down either one stake or two adjacent stakes of the three or four original stakes. In 2009 I was finally successful at growing seedlings after stratifying the seeds in the refrigerator all winter only to nearly lose them when premature germination occurred as a result of power outages cause by wind storms that spring such as the gravity wave now called a wake low. Apparently the power line to my place was the last one to be fixed even though it was the one that had the entire neighborhood shorted out for what seems like nearly a whole week.
The generic name has
recently been changed to Photinia Lindl. despite Aronia being the older name, and
as a result A. arbutifolia (L.) Pers. is now P. pyrifolia (Lam.) K.R. Robertson & Phipps due to a conflicting
specific epithet in Photinia, but the species Photinia arbutifolia Lindl., known as toyon, California holly ,and Christmas berry, has itself been put in another genus, Heteromeles arbutifolia M. Roem., where it is the only species. The genus Aronia has also been in other genera including both Pyrus L., and Sorbus L. where there are intergeneric hybrids that are put in the genus ×Sorbaronia C.K. Schneid., and reproduce by apomixis, which is a seed that comes true to type because it is actually a parthenogenic clone rather than the result of cross pollination. At least here you didn't have to wait very long to relearn all the names for these plants. Besides this may just change again because genetic studies don't support Aronia, and other genera combined with Photinia as being considered monophyletic. More often the genetic studies support name changing that perhaps includes moving some species in Rhamnus L. into Frangula Mill., making the entire genus Bumelia synonomous with Sideroxylon L., and most often moving/separating various genera into different/new families.