Aronia x prunifolia 'Nero'

Aronia 'Nero' is a variety of hybrid chokeberry selected in Russia for its large fruits and sweeter taste. This bush, whose 'super fruits' are highly consumed in Asia, bears beautiful clusters of berries with high nutritional value, resembling large blueberries or black currants, which are harvested when fully ripe in September-October. Slightly astringent when fresh, they can be used to make delicious jellies, pastries, fruit syrups, or jams. Besides its fruiting, this deciduous bush also offers abundant white and honey-scented flowering in spring and stunning autumn colors. Very hardy, it can be grown in full sun or partial shade, in any deep, preferably non-calcareous soil.

Aronia 'Nero', obtained in the 20th century by the Soviet botanist Vladimirovitch Michurin, has the genes of Aronia melanocarpa, the black-fruited chokeberry, and those of Aronia arbutifolia, the arbutus-leaved chokeberry. It is now extensively planted in Eastern European countries to meet the demand of the Asian market. Native to Canada and the northeastern United States, Aronia plants are very cold-resistant and thrive in cool, slightly acidic soils. Aronia is a distant cousin of roses, plum trees, and blackberries, a member of the vast family of Rosaceae.

'Nero' forms a sparsely branched sucker-forming bush with an open habit, reaching about 1.75m (5ft 8in) in height and 1.25m (4ft) in width, sometimes more depending on growing conditions. It shows rather slow growth in its early years. Its bark is smooth, reddish-brown. It bears alternate, simple, ovate, finely toothed leaves, 4 to 5cm (1.6 to 2in) long, with a satiny dark green colour, which truly flame up in autumn, adopting various shades of orange, copper, crimson red, or violet. In April-May, its white flowers speckled with pale pink, 2cm (0.8 in) in diameter, appear. Gathered in corymbs, they are very numerous, highly fragrant and very honey-scented. They give way to clusters of round fruits, 1.5cm (0.6in) in diameter, green-purple in colour, which become blackish-purple and shiny, while their peduncles turn red. This fruiting, slightly acidic but juicy and rich in antioxidants, lasts quite long into winter if not consumed by birds. 'Nero' is a self-fertile variety: a single plant is sufficient to obtain a plentiful harvest.

Naturally highly resistant to diseases and pests, Aronia is an excellent free-standing hedge bush, both hardy, ornamental, and undemanding. While it can tolerate poor soils, it will only reach its full potential in non-calcareous, cool, deep, slightly acidic soil. It can be planted individually, in a free-standing hedge, countryside hedgerow, or large shrub beds. To achieve a spectacular mass effect, plant it in groups of 3 to 6 plants of the same variety. This 'Nero' chokeberry can be combined in a hedge that is both beautiful and tasty with other small fruit bushes, foliage plants, or flowering plants such as apple trees, plum trees, ornamental cherry trees, male dogwood, hedge honeysuckle, serviceberries, Goumi, anemone trees, May berries, sea buckthorn, Goji, and blueberries. Plenty of options to create vitamin-packed cocktails for the whole family!

Aronia fruits can be consumed fresh, cooked, in jam, or in juice, for example mixed with cranberry juice and apple juice. Chinese pharmacopoeia attributes medicinal properties and beneficial properties for human health to the berries of this fruit variety. The richness in polyphenols, especially anthocyanins, vitamins B and C (three times more than oranges), minerals, and fibres make Aronia berries one of the most interesting small fruits from a nutritional point of view.