In The Garden: Need help with plant ID, ? cottoneaster

I ordered plants that were supposed to be ilex decidua(Possumhaw). Clearly they are not. They are deciduous and have drupes, but clearly they are not hollies. The flowers are all 5 petaled and the fruit forms behind the flower and not from a center ovum like a holly. I have uploaded images but there are no flowers now. Small white 5 petaled flowers. The plants are young and the fruit did not persist this year. I think it could be a type of Cottoneaster but am not sure. The flowers are like that. Not like any Hawthorn I have seen.

 

I was interested in this, sorry nobody replied. I hope you'll come back with photos of flowers and fruit next year, if you keep this.

 

I am keeping it. I will take pictures in the spring. The flowers are white and 5 petaled like a Hawthorn but smaller like hollies. The fruit forms on the back of the flower like a Hawthorn and it is a perfect flower, not dioecious. The fruit ended up black and shiny but did not persist in these baby plants.

 

Possibly Aronia melanocarpa?
http://www.plantadvice.co.uk/photos/gallery/4b0d2cad0d825fa24af156821e969d7f.jpg

 

Could be. But I suspect these will be taller than 1 meter. One already is.

 

Despite what Wikipedia says, Aronia melanocarpa can and does get up to 2-3m tall. I actually haven't seen any that was as small as 1 m.

 

I wish I'd been confident enough that these taller shrubs in front were Aronia melanocarpa to eat the berries. I think they are, and they're more like two meters tall. I'm attaching a third photo of a different area, same building, same plants, to show them looking much fuller cut back to under 1 meter.

Edited: this page lists some taller cultivars:
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/a/aromel/aromel1.html

 

I am sure it is not called chokeberry for nothing, you would be wanting to process them first anyway.

 

Nadia got me eating them at the UBC garden (reported a few times in the Talk about UBC Botanical Garden forum). You have to know her to understand: "Eat, eat, they're good for you, have some more, they're going to waste". I like them now. They stain fingers and teeth though. Maybe birds choke on them.

 

Astringency probably varies.

 

Well, time will tell. I will await next spring and take more pictures.

 

If it's supposed to be native you should be able to tell by the twigs, the buds and the leaves. Not everything is going to have those zigzag twigs and slender, pointed buds, for starters.