Are Chokecherries Edible?

Wild chokecherries love to grow right along the roadsides in North America, where they can enjoy the full sun. In the early spring, they have beautiful flowers like any other cherry tree. As the summer advances, they grow shiny fruits that are tempting for birds, small mammals, and humans alike. But should we be eating them? The answer is slightly complicated, so we’ll dive into this more below. The short answer is that human beings can eat parts of the chokecherry plants, but would be wise to be cautious.

Are Chokecherries Edible?

So, are chokecherries an edible fruit? The fruit of the chokecherry is edible. However, the cherry pits, chokecherry bark, stems, and chokecherry leaves are all poisonous to human beings.

Chokecherry pits contain amygdalin. When a human being eats amygdalin, their body converts it into cyanide. The effects of cyanide poisoning often come on rapidly and include headaches, dizziness, nausea, a rapid heart rate, and convulsions. It is most harmful to the heart and the brain.

This may sound alarming, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t eat the fruit of the chokecherry. This is something most people have encountered with other common fruits in the past. Amygdalin is found in other varieties of cherries as well as the pits of plums, apricots, peaches, and apple seeds. This is why most people are told as children to spit out the seed or not eat the pit of these types of fruit. All species of “Prunus” have pits that are poisonous to humans.

If you’re eating chokecherries and accidentally swallow one seed whole, you don’t need to panic unless you notice symptoms. For one thing, if the seed is swallowed whole, it is unlikely to open. Your body will most likely let the chokecherry pit travel through your digestive system without the seed ever opening. The seed has to open in order for the amygdalin to get out and be converted into cyanide and have toxic effects. While you want to avoid swallowing any pits, swallowing one seed whole is unlikely to cause effects.

However, you want to be more careful with children, and you don’t want to make a habit of swallowing seeds. As many as four or five seeds could cause serious toxic effects. Be careful of the chokecherry pit.

Can I Eat The Leaves Of Chokecherry Bushes?

No, humans cannot safely eat the chokecherry leaves, stems, or inner bark. The leaves have hydrocyanic acid, also known as prussic acid.

Drying or boiling the leaves may make them safe to consume. The hydrocyanic acid may be neutralized by heat. However, you’ll want to be very confident about your process for caring for the leaves before trying them this way.

Are Chokecherry Plants Edible For Animals?

While some animals can eat chokecherries, others cannot.

Livestock, like horses, cows, and domestic sheep, can be poisoned by choke cherries. Ranchers and farmers prefer to keep these wild plants away from their property for this reason.

Meanwhile, birds, deer, and bears will eat chokecherries by the handful and be just fine. You’ll notice birds are particular fans of chokecherry plants.

Interestingly, small mammals like chipmunks and mice can be seen eating chokecherries and biting around the pits without touching them. They seem to know the pits are toxic or at least don’t want to deal with biting into the pits.

Unfortunately for those who want to keep chokecherries for themselves, the fruit is also very popular with tent caterpillars. Outdoor enthusiasts may notice tent caterpillar webs in the forks of the chokecherry tree branches, which can be very pretty but mean that the caterpillars are eating up the leaves and possibly some fruit from the tree.

When To Eat Chokecherry Fruit

Many people report that the chokecherry is absolutely too astringent to enjoy. However, it would be useful to ask these people what color the fruit of the chokecherry they ate was. While chokecherries are always fairly bitter, they’re a lot tastier when they’re actually ripe.

In most areas of the United States, you’ll find dark purple or nearly black chokecherry in late August or early September. This is when then the fruit is ripe.

During the late spring, chokecherry trees will sport white flowers with five petals. The beautiful clusters give a real show, like many other types of cherry trees in the spring. The fruit begins to grow in the summer. During this growing season, the red fruit may look tempting, but it will definitely surprise people with how bitter it is from the early summer and into the late summer.

If you’re eating chokecherries, make sure they are the ripe dark purple or black chokecherries and that you’re confident you have the correct whole fruit. When cut open, the cherries should have a single pit. If you see many small seeds, that is not a chokecherry.

As mentioned above, always spit out the seeds of a chokecherry when you’re eating them.

Do Chokecherry Plants Go By Other Names?

Yes, there are several other names for the chokecherry. While you’ll most commonly hear it referred to as chokecherry, another common name is bird cherry, western chokecherry, or sometimes, bitter berry. This last one may be caused by people eating the fruit too early when it’s a bright and shiny red. Remember, you want to eat these when they’re a dark purple or nearly black color in the late summer. The official name for the chokecherry is Prunus Virginiana, and it is thus a member of the Prunus family.

Is Chokecherry A Shrub Or A Tree?

It often seems that the answer to this question depends on who you are talking to or the individual plan you’re looking at. Sometimes you will see the fruit and leaves you recognize, but the plant will look like a small tree, and other times more like a shrub. When people say chokecherry shrubs they tend to mean shorter plants of about three meters high. When people feel more confident saying chokecherry tree, they likely saw a plant of six to nine meters tall. These plants tend to live for about forty years, so many of them will grow taller given time, but sometimes a chokecherry tree will grow wider than it is tall and end up looking more like a shrub.

How To Eat The Black Chokecherry

As mentioned above, the chokecherry is best enjoyed when it gets dark purple or nearly black. At this time, the fruit can be enjoyed on its own, as long as the toxic pit is spit out. However, even when ripe, chokecherries are generally astringent, so most people will prefer to find other edible uses for the fruit.

One of the most popular ways to eat a chokecherry is to make it into a jam. This way, the fruit can be sweetened with sugar or syrup or mixed with other berries or fruit juice to dilute the bitter flavor.

Other popular options include fruit leather, wine, and syrups.

Many people find that they enjoy eating them with a little bit of salt. They will wash the chokecherries in some water, split them in half to remove the pit, and then salt them. They can be salted without being split first, but splitting them open lets the fruit absorb more of the salt to mix up the flavor.

Where Chokecherries Grow

Western chokecherries grow across North America, mostly in the United States and Canada. They enjoy the full sun, so you’re unlikely to spot a chokecherry tree deep in the woods. You’ll often see them growing along the roadside. Chokecherry plants are a popular option for erosion control because they will spread into dense thickets when given the room.

Native Americans Found Medicinal Uses For Chokecherries

Like with many plants that grow across the United States and Canada, Native Americans found both edible uses and medicinal uses for chokecherries. Multiple tribes have practiced boiling the chokecherry bark and making a tea. These teas have been used as a way to soothe coughs and fevers, as sedatives, and as appetite stimulants. The cherries were also made into a cough syrup.

Native Americans have also eaten chokecherries straight from the tree or by pounding the fruit with the seeds inside and then drying them in the sun. While modern medicine hasn’t done any studies to find that drying the smashed seeds in the sun makes them safe to eat, this has been a common practice that has allowed people to dry the fruit and eat it in the months to come. The seeds do have nutritional value that could be a benefit. However, it’s important to note that, as mentioned above, the cherry pits are considered toxic, and even when drying them out, they should be considered a potential danger.

Chokecherries Are Enjoyable And Edible Fruits

Like with many other fruits, including other cherries, the chokecherry needs to be eaten with some caution. People would be wise to avoid swallowing the pits when eating them. It would also be advisable to remove the cherry pit before allowing small children to eat the fruit. Keeping the fruit away from dogs and many other domestic animals is a good idea. If anyone swallows the seeds in a large amount, a doctor and poison control hotline should be contacted immediately.

With those warnings in mind, chokecherries are a bitter fruit that can be enjoyed straight off the branch or after being sweetened up in a fruit leather, syrup, or jam. The fruit is high in fiber, potassium, and essential vitamins that make them a healthy choice for your next snack.