Bailey & Bailey: Woody Plants of National Parks 125 



Flowers borne in dense cylindrical clusters 2 to 6 inches long; fruits dark red 

 to black; leaf-blades 2 to 4 inches long, thickish. (Chokecherries) 

 Fruits red to purple; leaf-stalks with 1 or 2 glands below the blades; leaf- 

 blades with tufts of hairs in axils of veins below. 



Occurs in eastern United States I. P- virginiana. 



Occurs on Pacific slope la. Var. demissa. 



Fruits black; leaf-stalks "landless, the blades smooth below; occurs in 



Rocky Mountains and Southwest lb. Var. melanocarpa. 



Flowers borne in loose more or less flat-topped clusters; fruits bright red; leaf- 

 blades % to 2J/2 inches long. (True cherries) 

 Leaf-blades oblong; flowers small, 1/3 to nearly Yz '"ch across; fruits 

 1/3 to ]/2 inch long. 



Leaves mostly blunt or rounded at lips; occurs on Pacific slope 



2. P. emarginala. 



Leaves mostly pointed at tips; occurs in Rocky Mountains 



3. P. pennsvhanica var. saximontana. 



Leaf-blades egg-shaped to elliptic or roundish; flowers Yz to % inch 

 across; fruits ^4 to I inch long; occurs in Sierra Nevada parks 

 4. P. subcordala. 



Leaves linear to spatula-shaped, % to '/2 '"ch long; branchlets rigid and often spine- 

 tipped; occurs in the Grand Canyon 3. P. fasciculala. 



1. Common Chokecherry (Primus virginiana L.) and varieties. — 

 Erect shrubs or small trees 2 to 15 feet high; leaf-blades 2 to 4 inches long, 

 oblong-egg-shaped to elliptic, pointed at the tips, rather thickish, finely toothed 

 along the margins, smooth and shiny above, smooth or somewhat hairy at 

 the juncture of the veins below; flowers white, I/4 to 1/2 inch across, borne in 

 elongated, cylindrical clusters 3 to 4 (or 6) inches long; fruits cherry-like, 

 about 14 to 1/2 inch in diameter, red to purple or black when mature, sweet 

 but more or less astringent. ■ 



The chokecherries are very attractive shrubs or small trees, conspicuous 

 in the Spring with their showy white flowers in elongate clusters sometimes 

 6 inches long. The fruits, small juicy cherries, though rather astringent when 

 eaten fresh, are often collected for making jelly, and they are relished by birds 

 and small mammals. The Indians used them fresh, or they dried and pounded 

 them into a meal which was mixed with dried meat to make pemmican. 



Foliage of young shoots is often poisonous to animals, but experiment 

 shows that if eaten moderately and in combination with other feed, it is with- 

 out ill effect. Apparently it is not poisonous to deer and elk in the Fall. 

 The poisonous principle, hydrocyanic (prussic) acid, is not present in the 

 foliage itself but develops after the leaves have been crushed and moistened, 

 as occurs prior to digestion.-'* 



Two varieties of chokecherry recognized in the western United States are 

 distinguished from the species by rather minute characteristics, as seen below. 



24 Range Plant Handbook B 114: United States Department of Agriculture, 

 Forest Service. 1937. 



