# Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa)

> White spring flowers, glossy black antioxidant-rich berries and some of the best red fall color of any shrub.

Also called Aronia. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-chokeberry/

![Black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) black fruit on bare twigs in late fall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/black-chokeberry-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Jason Zhang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aronia_melanocarpa_berries_outside_the_Toledo_Museum_of_Art.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 3 to 6 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 3 to 8
- Grows wild in: Dry uplands, sandy barrens, swamps and wet flats
- Native range: 29 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north and west to [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN) and south to [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [Mississippi](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MS), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC))
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Medium
- Flowers: May
- Fruit: Berries, August to February
- First crop: 2 to 3 years
- Mature spread: 6 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Edible, Wildlife value, Fall color, Drought tolerant, Tolerates wet soil, Bears young, Erosion control
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Native Edible Orchard, Bird & Berry Hedgerow.

## Notes

Aronia grows in bogs and on dry rocky ridges alike, in sun or light shade, from zone 3 south. The astringent berries are a commercial superfruit for juice and jam and hang on for late-winter birds. Suckers slowly into a mound; superb in a rain garden or a low hedge. It also serves to stabilize banks and control erosion. Good for a berry row in the kitchen garden or a mass planting on a dry bank.

## Size, growth and what to expect

In a yard black chokeberry makes a mounded, suckering shrub 3 to 6 feet tall and wide, though it can reach 8 feet. It grows at a medium pace, roughly a foot a year in youth on an average site by our growth estimator's model for a shrub its size.

Plants begin to bear in their second or third year, and the University of Wisconsin puts significant yields at years four or five, averaging 15 to 20 pounds of fruit per plant. Clusters of small white flowers with pink anthers open in May. The shiny purplish black fruit, about half an inch across, ripens from late August into September, and birds usually take it in mid to late winter. Grouse and prairie chickens eat it, and deer and rabbits browse the stems. The name refers to the tart, astringent fruit.

It grows wild across the Great Lakes region and the Northeast and down the higher Appalachians, in moist woods and drier thickets on bluffs.

## How to grow Black Chokeberry

Black chokeberry grows in full sun or part shade on any moisture from a dry ridge to a wet ditch. Fruit and fall color are best in sun. It suckers slowly outward and works in a rain garden or a low hedge, spaced 4 feet apart.

Plant dormant bare-root saplings in late fall or early spring. Dig a hole twice as wide as the roots and no deeper, keep the root flare at grade, and backfill with plain soil. Lay a mulch ring two or three inches deep that stops short of the stems. Clean the seed well, because seed left in the pulp germinates poorly. Sow it outdoors in fall a third of an inch deep, or keep it damp in the refrigerator for three to four months before a spring sowing.

Soak it once a week through the first summer. Rabbits clip the stems in winter and deer browse aronia in some areas, so a wire cage for the first two years is worth it. After a few years, cut the oldest stems to the ground in late winter to keep the bush productive.

A single chokeberry sets fruit without a partner. Seedlings begin bearing in their second or third year, with berries ripening in late August. The fruit is astringent fresh and better cooked. Few pests trouble it.

## Sources

- [University of Wisconsin Extension, Crops and Soils: aronia berries](https://cropsandsoils.extension.wisc.edu/aronia-berries)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: black chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa](https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/plantmaterials/ndpmcpg8351.pdf)
- [The Morton Arboretum: black chokeberry](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/black-chokeberry/)
- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Aronia melanocarpa](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/aronia-melanocarpa/)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Aronia chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Aronia.pdf)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Aronia melanocarpa](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ARME6)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: black chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=480)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 9: Aronia melanocarpa](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242416098)
- [Go Botany (Native Plant Trust): Aronia melanocarpa, black chokeberry](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/aronia/melanocarpa/)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Aronia melanocarpa](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/aronia/aronia-melanocarpa/)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Native replacements for burning bush, barberry, privet, Bradford pear, boxwood, butterfly bush and forsythia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-replacements-for-burning-bush-and-bradford-pear/index.html.md)
- [Native shrubs and trees deer usually leave alone, and why the lists disagree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-shrubs-and-trees-deer-leave-alone/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other chokeberries (Aronia) we grow: [Red Chokeberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/red-chokeberry/index.html.md)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Maleberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/maleberry/index.html.md), [Dangleberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/dangleberry/index.html.md), [Staggerbush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/staggerbush/index.html.md) and [Sheep Laurel](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/sheep-laurel/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [Black Gum (Tupelo)](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-gum/index.html.md), [Redbay](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/redbay/index.html.md) and [Black Oak](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/black-oak/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Red Chokeberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/red-chokeberry/index.html.md), [Groundsel Bush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/groundsel-bush/index.html.md), [Labrador Tea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/labrador-tea/index.html.md) and [Northern Snowberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/northern-snowberry/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Black Chokeberry, add ?species=black-chokeberry with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 3, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=black-chokeberry&zone=3&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Black Chokeberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=black-chokeberry): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Black Chokeberry as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=black-chokeberry (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Black Chokeberry is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=black-chokeberry (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Black Chokeberry needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 1 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=black-chokeberry:1
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Black Chokeberry where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=black-chokeberry&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Black Chokeberry goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=black-chokeberry&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Black Chokeberry flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=black-chokeberry