Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Aronia melanocarpa (Michx.) Elliott
- Family: Rose (Rosaceae)
- Flowering: April-May
- Field Marks: This shrub differs from similar species by its smooth leaves, smooth flower stalks, and black or purplish fruits.
- Habitat: Boggy ground, swamps, low woods, edge of sandstone cliffs, pine savannas, flatwoods, wet thickets, stream banks.
- Habit: Branched shrub up to 10 feet tall.
- Stems: Gray, smooth.
- Leaves: Alternate, simple, obovate to oval, usually pointed at the tip, narrowed to the base, finely toothed, smooth, paler on the lower surface, up to 4 inches long, up to nearly 2 inches wide.
- Flowers: Several in compound cymes; branches of the flower clusters smooth.
- Sepals: 5, united into a short cup, smooth, but with tiny glands.
- Petals: 5, white, usually rounded at the tip.
- Stamens: Numerous.
- Pistils: Ovary superior; styles 3-5, united at the base.
- Fruits: Fleshy, more or less spherical, smooth, black or purple, up to 1/3 inch in diameter.
Previous Species -- Red Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia)
Return to Species List -- Group 5
Next Species -- St. Andrew's Cross (Ascyrum hypericoides)
