Hello! I visited my aunt yesterday and she gave us some fruits from a bush she had in tahe garden. We ate some and took also with us - they are firm and a bit sour... I serched on the net the scientific name of the plant - scorus acuparia but they don't look at all the same... I need your help to identify this bush, I still have many of these fruits... are they safe? Thank you!
This just a guess, were are Lila, Michael_F and Ron hiding anyway? Prunus spinosa (blackthorn or sloe), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_spinosa
Looks like Aronia melanocarpa (syn. Photinia melanocarpa), though I'm not sure how widely cultivated this is in SE Europe. Fruit edible, though they need to be made into jam or jelly to be palatable. Sorry, definitely not Prunus spinosa, wrong clustering of fruit for that.
Thank you, Michael! I am sure you are right, I've just searched for more images and description of Aronia melanocarpa. The taste is sour and astringent but I like their flavour... I was afraid they are not safe and I found this: Chokeberries' rich antioxidant content may be beneficial as a dietary preventative for reducing the risk of diseases caused by oxidative stress. Among the models under evaluation where preliminary results show benefits of chokeberry anthocyanins are colorectal cancer (Lala et al. 2006), cardiovascular disease (Bell & Gochenaur 2006), chronic inflammation (Han et al. 2005), gastric mucosal disorders (peptic ulcer) (Valcheva-Kuzmanova et al. 2005), eye inflammation (uveitis) (Ohgami et al. 2005) and liver failure (Valcheva-Kuzmanova et al. 2004). They are not widely cultivated in our country, I'm sure, but my uncle has many "strange" plants... I think I'll have another question for you in a few days, from the same garden. Thank you!
