Roaming Roots

Chokecherry, Bitter berry, Virginia bird cherry, Western chokecherry, Cha’pa (Assiniboin), Puck-keep (Blackfoot), Monotse (Cheyenne), Malupwa (Crow), Schla scha (Flathead), O-hpan-ai-gaw (Kiowa), Canpa’-hu (Lakota), Asasaweminagaawanzh (Objibwe), Nopa-zhinga (Omaha & Ponca), Goonpa (Osage), Nahaapi nakaaruts (Pawnee)

---

Trout fishing in Montana with my brother along the Prickly Pear Creek.

We also took a daytrip up the old U.S. Highway 91 along the Missouri River from Helena to Great Falls.

Another night I saw the northern lights for the first time!

Botanical Description

Native, perennial, deciduous, thicket-forming large, erect shrub or small tree with numerous slender stems. The bark is smooth, and the color varies from gray to reddish brown when young, to brownish-black with age. The bark also displays distinctive horizontal rows of lenticels (air pores).

Leaves are smooth, simple, alternate, oval to broadly elliptic in shape with serrated margins. Ranging in size from 1 to 4 inches long, and 3/4 to 2 inches wide, the leaves are dark green, glossy above and paler beneath, and turn yellow in autumn.

Clusters of small, white, five-petaled flowers are arranged in cylindrical racemes 3 to 6 inches long. Berries also grow in clusters and begin a pale green color before progressing through yellow, bright red and then finally a deep red or purple-black (depending on the variety) when ripe.  Each drupe contains a single seed.

There are three recognized varieties of Prunus virginiana. The variety demissa produces dark red fruit whereas the variety melanocarpa produces black fruit. The variety virginiana can be found in two forms, one with crimson to deep red fruit and one with white fruit.

Traditional Uses

The origin of this plant’s common name is the astringent quality of the raw fruit. It’s so sour it will make you pucker, or “choke.” This bitter taste is due to the hydrocyanic acid (also known as prussic acid or cyanide) in the seeds, leaves, and stems of chokecherries. Of note, hydrocyanic acid is present in all members in the Prunus genus, including plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds.

Chokecherry is endemic to a large geographic range in North America and was indispensable for many native tribes.

Culinary Uses

The fruit was a staple for numerous native tribes where was routinely cooked, to break down the hydrocyanic acid, before eaten or dried.

Chokecherries were a traditional ingredient in pemmican, a portable, non-perishable and highly nutritious food. Pemmican is made by stone grinding dried meat, preferably bison. Then warmed animal marrow, suet, or fat was mixed with the meat and crushed chokecherries added before cooling and storing.

Colonizers also realized the chokecherry’s food value and the fruits were collected, then and now, to make jellies, jams, pie-fillings, syrups, sauces and wines.

Medicinal Uses

The berry juice was used to by the Arikara to stop post-partum hemorrhage, and by the Blackfeet to treat sore throats and diarrhea. Similarly, the Cherokee gave warm chokecherry tea was given to pregnant women at the beginning of labor and ate boiled chokecherry fruit for bloody bowels. The Paiutes made an infusion from the leaves and twigs to treat colds and rheumatism. The Sioux made a poultice from the dried roots to stop bleeding in open wounds. The Sioux, Crow, and Gros Ventre made chokecherry bark tea for gastrointestinal disorders. Bark infusions were used by both the Crow and the Cherokee to cleanse wounds, sores and burns. The Cherokee also used this bark tea for fevers, coughs, and other respiratory ailments.

Chokecherry bark was listed in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia from 1820 to 1970 to treat “debility, hectic fever, irritative dyspepsia, irritability of the nervous system, fever, pleurisy, whooping cough, tuberculosis, pneumonia, sore throats and gastrointestinal problems . . . a rinse on burns, open sores, cankers and skin ulcers.”

Modern phytochemical research has found that small dosages hydrocyanic acid can stimulate respiration and improve digestion.

Other Uses

Green dye can be derived from the leaves, inner bark and immature fruit, and a purplish-red dye from ripe fruit. The wood was used to make arrow shafts and bows, as well as tipi stakes or pins.

RECIPE

Chokecherry Jelly

I used Hilda Sterner’s Backwoods Chokecherry Jelly recipe and it is packed with delicious cherry flavor!

_References

_{Adamant, A. (2018, September 2). Foraging and using chokecherries. Practical Self Reliance. https://practicalselfreliance.com/chokecherry/}

_{Edible Wild Foods. (n.d.). Common chokecherry: Prunus virginiana. https://www.ediblewildfood.com/common-chokecherry.aspx}

_{Kaesermann, A. (2013). Prunus virginiana “Chokecherry”. https://sites.google.com/a/macalester.edu/ordwipedia/traditional-ecological-knowledge-tek-from-ling-225/the-chokecherry}                                         

_{Montana Natural Heritage Program. (n.d.). Chokecherry — Prunus virginiana.  Montana Field Guide. https://FieldGuide.mt.gov/speciesDetail.aspx?elcode=PDROS1C1E0}

_{USDA. (2003, April). Chokecherry – Prunus virginiana L. Natural Resources Conservation Service Plan Guide. https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/plantmaterials/kspmcpg5596.pdf}