Addisonia 33 



(Plate 97) 



ARONIA ARBUTIFOLIA 

 Red-fruited Choke-berry 



Native of eastern North America 



Family Mai^acEas Apple Family 



Mespilus arbutifolia L. Sp. PI. 478. 1753. 



Pyrus arbutifolia L. f. Suppl. 256. 1781. 



Mespilus arbutifolia erythrocarpa Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 292. 1803. 



Aronia arbutifolia EH. Bot. S. C. & Ga. 1 : 556. 1821. 



A branching shrub, sometimes attaining a height of twelve feet, 

 but usually much smaller, commonly about five feet high. The 

 slender young twigs are gray; the bark of old stems nearly smooth 

 and dark gray; the narrow winter buds are about one quarter of an 

 inch in length. At our latitude the leaves unfold in April and fall 

 in late autumn; the blades are oval, oblong or obovate, obtuse or 

 abruptly short-tipped, narrowed or somewhat wedge-shaped at the 

 base, three inches long or less, the margin serrulate-crenulate, the 

 upper surface nearly or quite smooth, the midvein bearing small 

 glands, the lower surface persistently white-woolly; the petiole is 

 much shorter than the blade; the small narrow stipules are early 

 deciduous. The flowers, borne in terminal compound woolly 

 cymes, are from four to six lines broad, and open in the south in 

 March, in the north in May or early June. The calyx is woolly, 

 with five acute, very glandular lobes ; the five obovate, obtuse, white 

 or faintly purplish petals are nearly a quarter of an inch long. The 

 fruit is a short-pyriform or subglobose drupe, one third to one half 

 an inch in diameter, bright red when mature, and persists on the 

 twigs until late autumn or early winter. 



The red-fruited choke-berry grows naturally in swamps, wet 

 woods and thickets, from New England to Florida, extending west 

 to Ohio and Louisiana. Its close relative, Aronia atropurpurea, was 

 described and illustrated in this volume, at plate 81. 



The plant from which our illustration was made is growing in the 

 fruticetum. New York Botanical Garden; it was obtained from 

 Meehan & Sons in 1895. 



N. ly. Britton. 



Explanation op Plate. Eig. 1. — Fruiting branch. Fig. 2. — Flowering 

 branch. 



