Are these chokeberries?

I am not sure. They do not look like blackthorn, which has bluer berry. Here is an image of chokeberrie. My concern is that your berries do not seem to cluster.

Edit im a retard. They are growin on a tree as well, not a bush. The picture in the SAS book looks like this

I can’t say for sure, either. They do look very similar to the picture. I just wanted to comment so I could lol at “possibly more num nums growin in”. :)

awww it cut it off. “my back yard”

It looks like the tree that I have fruiting in my back yard right now. Do you see birds eating the fruit? If there aren’t a lot of dead birds lying around, it might not be poisonous.

Here’s a description of the buckthorn.

That last line is a doozy, indeed.

edit: Ah, oops, never mind about the bird comment

Check out the black cherry tree. We grew up with one in the backyard. Photos of berries are #5 and #6.

The trees get to be very large and tall.

@syz birds can eat plenty of plants that humans cant though so they make poor indicators…..
There are a lot of plants that are poisonous to mammals but not birds. Birds after all are far better seed dispersers than mammals. Birds are also known to eat other things to neutralize the toxins of berries they eat. IE McCaws eating clay.

@gailcalled I think you may be right. I just found a better picture and one of the leaf

Well I pretty much determined it was either a chokeberry or more likely the black cherry. So i tried a little tiny piece. Tasted horrible. God awful bitter and dried my mouth out quite bad. So i spit it out :P

“The fruit isn’t tasty, and this accounts for the tree’s undeserved bad reputation.Only about 1 out of 15 trees, like this one, have relatively large, juicy, delicious fruit. You’re most likely to find them in full sunlight,”
I was really hopin since my tree is in full sunlight id get lucky with that 1 in 15 shot. Guess not :( .

Time to go back to eatin mulberries :P

@uberbatman: That leaf looks like a black cherry to me. The berries are meant for the birds and not you, however.

yea…. they suck….

I hear they make a really good jam. So whenever I get some time im going to give that a try. Ill let everyone know how it comes out

Uh, I would check with a local botanist before eating that berry. We’d hate to lose you.

@gailcalled i brought some into my wilderness professor at school. He confirmed they are indeed chokeberries. The pits contain cyanide so cant eat them, but the fruit is ok to eat. My professor thinks they actually taste really good, but i think his tastes have been tainted by years of eating all kinds of weird things in the wild :P

I gather that the jam or jelly isn’t bad, but why not go for the perfect strawberries we have now?

Re: chokeberries…

“Although technically edible, the fruits are extremely tart and bitter, and are not recommended for eating off the bush (hence the common name of chokeberry), but may be used for making tasty jams and jellies.” (Sorry. I lost the site citation.)

Edit. Here it is