Prunus virginiana var. demissa

Western choke cherry, Western Choke Cherry

Family: Rosaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Western choke cherry is a California native shrub found in the California Floristic Province (excluding the coast and Central Valley) and Great Basin in rocky slopes, canyons, scrubland, oak and pine woodlands, and conifer forests at elevations below 3,000 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces white flowers 4 to 7 millimeters long in clustered racemes. Growing as a small shrub or tree up to 6 meters tall, often forming dense thickets with multiple stems. Its deciduous leaves are elliptic to oblanceolate, 30 to 100 millimeters long with finely serrated edges and an obtuse to slightly heart-shaped base. The fruit develops as a fleshy, glabrous drupe 6 to 14 millimeters long, ranging in color from red to black when mature.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, canyons, scrubland, oak/pine woodland, conifer forest

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: < 3000 m

Bioregions: CA-FP (exc coast, GV), GB

California counties: Los Angeles, Sonoma, Tuolumne, Siskiyou, San Bernardino, San Diego, Tulare, Mendocino, Kern, Fresno, Ventura, Madera, Riverside, Humboldt, Plumas, Modoc, Trinity, Lake, San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Luis Obispo, Contra Costa, Mono, San Francisco, Alpine, Butte, Lassen, Napa, Santa Barbara, Shasta, Colusa, Mariposa, El Dorado, Nevada, Calaveras, Del Norte, Placer, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Alameda, Amador, Glenn, Sacramento, Marin, Monterey, Sierra, Sutter, Tehama, Solano, Stanislaus

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.