Addisonia 1 



(Plate 81) 



ARONIA ATROPURPUREA 



Purple-fruited Choke-berry 



Native of eastern North America 

 Family Mai^aceab Appl^ Family 



Aronia atropurpurea Britton, Manual 517. 1901. 



Pyrus arbutifolia atropurpurea Robinson, Rhodora 10: 33. 1908. 



Pyrus atropurpurea L. H. Bailey, Rhodora 18: 154, 1916. 



An irregularly branching shrub, reaching a maximum height of 

 about twelve feet, usually lower, commonly about seven feet high. 

 The young twigs are slender; the bark of old stems is smooth and 

 dark grey. The winter-buds are narrow, sharp-pointed, and about 

 one quarter of an inch long. The leaves unfold in early spring and 

 fall in late autumn; the blades are oval to obovate, from one inch to 

 three inches long, about one inch wide or less, pinnately veined, finely 

 and rather sharply toothed, moderately thin in texture; the apex is 

 either acute or blunt, the base narrowed, and the petiole is much 

 shorter than the blade, seldom over one quarter of an inch in length; 

 the upper surface of the blade is dull green and smooth or nearly so, 

 the midvein bearing small glands; the lower surface is persistently 

 whitish- wooUy ; the small, narrow stipules fall away very soon after 

 the leaves unfold. The flowers are borne in terminal, more or less 

 compound, woolly cymes, and open, according to latitude, in April, 

 May, or June, soon after the leaves unfold; their pedicels are short 

 and woolly. The small, urn-shaped, woolly calyx has five acute 

 lobes which are glandless or bear a few glands; there are five, obovate, 

 obtuse, concave, spreading white petals one sixth to one quarter of 

 an inch long. The numerous stamens are much shorter than the 

 petalsj with filiform filaments and very small anthers. 



This shrub inhabits wet woods and thickets in eastern North 

 America, ranging from eastern Canada to Ontario, Michigan, and 

 southward to Virginia, perhaps to Florida. It grows readily when 

 planted in dry ground, even with full exposure to the sim, but does 

 not become as tall under these conditions as when in its more nattural 

 habitat of wet thickets; it is attractive and interesting both in flower 

 and m fruit. 



The genus Aronia, established by Medicus in 1789 (Phil. Bot. 140), 

 is composed of but three species, all natives of eastern North America 

 and closely related to each other. The typical species is Aronia 

 arbutifolia, the red choke-berry, which, like A. atropurpurea, has 

 woolly under leaf-surfaces, but its fruit is bright red and only 

 about a quarter of an inch in diameter, and its flowers have very 



