Black Chokeberry                a-RO-nee-a mel-an-o-KAR-pa

• Deciduous shrub, 3-5+ ft (0.9-1.5 m), rounded form; suckers and may form a large colony, twigs nearly glabrous.  Leaves 2-5 cm long, obovate and often abruptly acuminate, finely serrateed, glossy green above, lighter below, fall color from red, red-brown, to purple-black.  (The true A. melantocarpa apparently does not develop fall color; see Dirr, 1998, p. 110.).  Flowers white, 1.5 cm wide, 10-20 per cluster (corymb).  Fruit, pea size, glossy black, ripening in early fall.
• Sun to part shade, low wet to sandy dry areas, very adaptable.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 3     Native from Nova Scotia to Florida and west to Michigan.
• Its fruit is grown commercially in Europe and processed into juice.   Aronia juice from fruit grown in the Masurian Lakeland region of Poland is now available in the US (Aronia Berry Juice Cocktail, Aronia Berry, Inc., San Francisco, CA).
• melanocarpa: melano, black; carpa, fruit
• Oregon State Univ. campus: east of Wilson Hall (near Adams and 11th St.).