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Aronia prunifolia - (image 1 of 5)

Taxonomy

Family: Rosaceae

Habitat

Bogs, swamps, wet woods.

Associates

Distribution

Eastern Canada and the eastern U.S. south to SC and TN, west to Ontario and IL.

Morphology

Has dark-purple or purple-black fruit, similar to A. melanocarpa, but the leaves pilose on lower leaf surfaces as in A. arbutifolia; leaves do not turn red in the fall.

Notes

Flowers May to July

Fruit August to October

Wetland Indicator: FACW

This species (or hybrid as treated by some authors) is apparently the result of hybridization of A. melanocarpa and A. arbutifolia and can be found with or without one or both parents nearby. In central NY it occurs with A. melanocarpa where A. arbutifolia is completely absent and is really only distinguishable by the pilose lower leaf surface. It has been proposed that its ability to produce normal fruit is the result of apomixis.

The last two images are of a cultivar that was sold as A. melanocarpa with large leaves that are downy underneath and purple-black fruit that appear to be a hybrid.

References

Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY

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