What Wildflower Begins Blooming This Week?  (May week 2)

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This week, I’m featuring Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) as one of our local wildflowers that begins to bloom at this time.

PLEASE NOTE:  Culturally Significant Plant = Ethnobotanic Uses:  Chokecherry covered a large geographic range in North America, so a majority of tribes used it to treat a variety of health problems.  Read more.

Chokecherry is a pioneer species that colonizes disturbed areas where some of the woody vegetation has been damaged, killed, or removed.  The woody root system is shallow and spreading from which dense thickets of clonal plants may form.

Identification Tips:

Chokecherry is a deciduous suckering shrub or small tree that grows 8-25′ tall at maturity.  It has a short trunk about 2-6″ across, while its crown is irregular with ascending to widely spreading branches.  On older trees, trunk bark is gray or grayish brown and somewhat scaly or wrinkled, otherwise it is mostly brown and smooth with prominent lenticels (lateral air pores).  The branches and twigs are brown to reddish brown and smooth with prominent lenticels.  Young shoots are light green, reddish green, or brownish green, and smooth.  Alternate leaves occur along twigs and young shoots.  These leaves are 2-4″ long and ¾–2″ across; they are ovate to oblong in shape, while their margins are serrated.  The crushed foliage of this woody plant has a strong bitter-almond scent.

Chokecherry is similar to another native species, Black Cherry (Prunus serotina), in producing showy racemes of flowers, although the racemes of Chokecherry are slightly shorter in length.  While Black Cherry can become a full-sized tree, Chokecherry is a shrub or small tree.  These two species can be distinguished by their leaves: the leaves Chokecherry have a finely serrated margin with closely spaced sharp teeth, while the leaves of Black Cherry have numerous blunt edges along their margins.

Comparison of Chokecherry leaves (left) and Black Cherry leaves (right)
Photo Credit: https://neveragoosechase.com/2019/09/25/wtf-black-cherry/

Cylindrical racemes of 10-25 flowers that are 2-4 inches long and about one inch in diameter may droop downward; they grow at the end of last years twig growth.  The flowers may appear before the leaves are fully formed.  Each flower is about ½” across when it is fully open with 5 spreading white oval petals; the face of each petal is somewhat concave.  The sepals are initially light green, but they later become yellow, causing the centers of the flowers to appear yellow.  The pedicels of the flowers and the central stalks of racemes are light green and smooth.  The flowers bloom for about 1-2 weeks; they have an almond-sweet fragrance.

Chokecherry raceme of flowers

Afterwards, the flowers are replaced by drupes that become mature during the summer.  Mature drupes have a globular shape, about 1/3 inch in diameter, and become dark purple or black when fully ripened.

The toxic pits of the Chokecherry compared in size to the drupe itself.
Photo Credit: (c) G. D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/chokecherry.html

Each drupe contains a a single small stone (seed with a hard coat) that is surrounded by juicy flesh.

Comparison of the relative sizes of the pits of Chokecherry (on the right) and Wild Black Cherry (on the left). Note size and color differences. Both are toxic.
Photo Credit: (c) G. D. Bebeau, https://www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org/pages/plants/chokecherry.html

Autumn foliage turns golden yellow to orange.

Chokecherry fall colors

Culinary and Medicinal Uses:

WARNING:  The leaves, stems and seeds all contain a cyanogenic glycoside that is poisonous to humans. Children have been poisoned and have died after ingesting large quantities of ripened fruit that still contained those seeds.  Chokecherry fruit can be eaten when fully ripened after the seed (a single pit) has been removed.

Chokecherry fruit has a very astringent or puckery taste, being both somewhat sour and somewhat bitter, especially when eaten raw; hence the common name of “choke” cherry. Even so, after being cooked, they can be made into delicious preserves and jelly because of their unique flavor.  In fact, they are my favorite wild cherry when prepared in that manner.

For many American Indian tribes of the Northern Rockies, Northern Plains, and boreal forest region of Canada and the United States, chokecherries are the most important fruit in their traditional diets and are part of pemmican, a staple traditional food.

Native peoples and settlers used chokecherry bark and roots to make sedatives, blood-fortifying tonics, appetite stimulants and medicinal teas for treating coughs, sore throats, tuberculosis, malaria, stomachaches and intestinal worms.  The bark of chokecherry root is made into an asperous-textured concoction used to ward off or treat colds, fever and stomach maladies.

Evidence of the bark’s medicinal properties is recorded in the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition on June 11, 1805:

“They then halted for dinner; Captain Lewis, who had been for some days afflicted with dysentery, was now attacked with violent pains, attended by a high fever, and was unable to go on. He therefore camped for the night under some willow-boughs. Having brought no medicine, he determined to try an experiment with the small twigs of the choke-cherry, which being stripped of their leaves and cut into pieces about two inches long, were boiled in pure water, till they produced a strong black decoction of an astringent bitter taste; a pint of this he took at sunset, and repeated the dose an hour afterward. By ten o’clock he was perfectly relieved from pain, a gentle perspiration ensued, his fever abated, and in the morning he was quite recovered.”

Wildlife Value:

Chokecherry is widely regarded as an important wildlife food plant.

The flowers are cross-pollinated primarily by bees, including honeybees, bumblebees, Andrenid bees, and Halictid bees (including metallic green sweat bees).  Syrphid flies and other flies are also common visitors of the flowers.  Both nectar and pollen are available as rewards for these visitors.

Chokecherry is a larval host to many butterflies and moths, including:  Angled Metarranthis (Metarranthis angularia), Black-waved Flannel Moth (Megalopyge crispata), Blinded Sphinx (Paonias excaecata), Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora cecropia), Cherry Shoot Borer (Argyresthia oreasella), Common Metarranthis (Metarranthis hypochraria), Coral Hairstreak (Satyrium titus), Eastern Tent Caterpillar (Malacosoma americanum), Elm Sphinx (Ceratomia amyntor), Garman’s Quaker (Orthosia garmani), Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe), Io Moth (Automeris io), Polyphemus Moth (Antheraea polyphemus), Promethea Silkmoth (Callosamia promethea), Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax), Scalloped Sallow (Eucirroedia pampina), Small-eyed Sphinx (Paonias myops), Speared Dagger Moth (Acronicta hasta), Spring Azure butterfly (Celastrina ladon), Striped Hairstreak (Satyrium liparops), Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), Twin-spotted Sphinx (Smerinthus jamaicensis), Ugly Nest Caterpillar (Archips cerasivorana), and Ultronia Underwing (Catocala ultronia).

Chokecherry and other cherry species are also important sources of food to many vertebrate animals, including birds and mammals. The fruit is consumed by many birds, including Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula), Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata), Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum), Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis), Red-Bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus), Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus), Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea), Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), and Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina).

Animals, such as American Black Bear (Ursus americanus), Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus), Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), Opossum (Didelphis virginiana), Raccoon (Procyon lotor), Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), and Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis) also eat the fruit.  The seeds are consumed by Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus), Meadow Jumping Mouse (Zapus hudsonius), Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus), and White-footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus).  The twigs and foliage of Chokecherry and other cherry trees are eaten by White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus), while the bark of saplings are gnawed by Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus floridanus) during the winter.

Where Found Locally:

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