Shrub

Please tell me what this plant is. The photo is from last week in Bellingham. It is maybe 3 or 4 feet high and there is at least one sparrow who enjoys it. It is at a construction site. I don't know if it will be salvaged. Thank you!

 

Chokeberry (Aronia). Not a good time of year to be digging it up.

 

Thank you very much!

 

If you find it interesting maybe just look for other examples at independent garden centers. Part of the time these can be purchased in comparatively inexpensive one gallon pot sizes. Note that although named horticultural selections on the general market are usually offered as forms of A. melanocarpa (or A. arbutifolia) there is a tendency for these to be derived from A. x prunifolia instead.

 

Thank you. It is an interesting plant. Yesterday I watched a Youtube video about a pioneer commercial Aronia operation and collective in Iowa. I was hoping plants would be salvaged from this construction site. I don't yet know the outcome for every plant.

 

If you want that one, ask to speak to the General (General contractor) when you see workers on the properties. Almost always, commercial properties or construction along main roads are subject to updated building codes, and the grade levels go from the old fashion roads built higher to pitch water off the road, to the modern codes that build drainage under the roads and so pitch drainage to the road.

This almost always means bulldozing everything and raising the grade. Unimportant cheap things like landscaping goes with it. Ask the General if anyone would object to your collecting what you have your eye on. He'll usually say, "OK", but liability is a big deal to him and the lawyers, so stay away from the equipment, watch for dangerous terrain, and do it quickly because they move fast and one day it'll all be gone.

 

Thanks very much Michigander. Good advice. I have been lobbying for a year for the developers and other well-equipped and well-connected people to officially salvage the native plants at least. I am still keeping my hopes up although it is past the 11th hour. It is a drama to me. I post some photos on my Instagram account (peace.justice.pets). More to come. Fingers crossed. Thanks again.

 

Likely to shrivel if dug now. I'd just buy some plants at a nursery instead.

 

Thank you, Ron.

 

Nobody salvaged any of the plants. There was asbestos and mercury/quicksilver on the site so I guess it is just as well the plants were all destroyed.