Solved: Black Chokeberry

[swampwhiteoak]

Don't see this growing wild too much, but a lot of people plant it in CRP ground, it is a native.  This is what it looks like now.



This is what it looked like in the spring.

[Tom]

A cluster of miniture, purple, crabapple berries?

what is CRP ground?

[swampwhiteoak]

No, that's not too close.  Some people do make jelly out of the fruit, though.  Not sure what kinda hint to give you without giving it away.

Darn my abbreviations.  Anyone who works for the government quickly learns a bunch of abbreviations and after a while assumes everyone else knows what they're talking about.  

CRP stands for Conservation Reserve Program.  If you got some ground that you're tired of farming you can sign up in the program and the government will pay you pretty well to plant grass, trees, shrubs, ect., and quit farming.  It's part of my job to help people out choosing appropriate species.
A pretty decent chunk of land has been planted to trees in the last 15 or so years.

[Tom]

Oh-h, I understand.  I've heard of that program, usually offered to farmers of corn, tobacco, wheat and milk. Funny, nobody offered me money to not grow trees.

That plant looks so very familiar. I'm going to enjoy looking for it after I get some sleep.  Hope somebody doesn't beat me to the punch.

That's  a good picture too.

[Tom]

Having recently had an experience with a plant that looks very similar to this I want to make a guess before I trot off to bed.  It favors the vibernums that we looked at when we discovered cassinoides.  Is it Nannyberry? :-/

[swampwhiteoak]

Good try, but not quite.  It's a member of the rose family.

[Tom]

Would Service Berry be closer??

[Texas Ranger]

Man, have lost all the last posts now, cannot pick up the thread, at all.

[Tom]

Yep, that was a good excercise.  I think they were on to you before we lost it.  I bet you could slip this one to us next year and confuse us again.

Have you got another one this good?