'Canada Red' Chokecherry

'Canada Red' Chokecherry

Prunus virginiana 'Canada Red'

Rosaceae (Rose Family)

▲ ▼ flowering trees, with green leaves in spring

▲ ▼ flowers and green leaf color in spring

▲ ▼ trees with red summer foliage

▲ ▼ summer leaf color

▲ ▼ trunk and bark

Location on Missouri State University campus: southeast of Craig Hall, along Grand St.

Canada Red Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana 'Canada Red'):

Leaves: ovate, lanceolate leaves which taper to a more slender point, emerge green, turn purple; leaves 3-5" long and 2 as wide; glabrous

Stems: slender, red-brown to orange-brown, shiny

Bark: dark reddish brown to gray-brown, smooth to shallowly fissured

Size/Growth Habit: 20-30' tall and wide, either as suckering small tree, or large shrub with rounded irregular outline

Flowers: clear white in 3-6" long, 1" wide racemes in mid spring

Fruit: red to purple drupe about 1/3" diameter

Growing Conditions and Growth Rate: prefers full sun, moist, well-drained soil; medium to fast growth rate

Good cold hardiness (seen quite a bit in northern states in U.S, and longer lived than similar Purpleleaf Plum (Prunus cerasifera), except 'Canada Red' Chokecherry leaves emerge green, and mature to purple color, and its bark remains fairly smooth and unfurrowed until large, and its flowers are white and in racemes after the leaves emerge; Purpleleaf Plum's leaves emerge purple, the bark furrows with age, and flowers are pink, in axillary clusters before leaves emerge.

Similar also to Purpleleaf Sandcherry (Prunus cistena), except Purpleleaf Sandcherry is more shrub-like, and it has pinkish flowers and leaves emerge purple.