Chokecherry

Description:

For many Native American tribes of the Northern Rockies, Northern Plains, and boreal forest region of Canada and the United States, chokecherries were the most important fruit in their diets. The bark of chokecherry root was once made into an asperous-textured concoction used to ward off or treat colds, fever and stomach maladies by native Americans. The inner bark of the chokecherry, as well as red osier dogwood, or alder, was also used by Native Americans in their smoking mixtures, known as “kinnikinnick”, to improve the taste of the bearberry leaf. The chokecherry fruit can be used to make a tasty jam, jelly, or syrup, but the bitter nature of the fruit requires sugar to sweeten the preserves.

Habitat:

growing along a rural road