Alternate name: Stagbush, Sweethaw, Smooth Blackhaw

Family: Caprifoliaceae, Honeysuckle view all from this family

Description Shrub or small tree with short trunk, spreading, rounded or irregular crown, many showy, small, white flowers, and small, blue-black fruit.
Height: 20' (6 m).
Diameter: 4" (10 cm).
Leaves: opposite; 1 1/2-3" (4-7.5 com long, 3/4-2" (2-5 cm) wide. Elliptical; finely saw-toothed; slightly thick; hairless or nearly so. Shiny green with network of sunken veins above, dull light green beneath; turning shiny red in autumn.
Bark: gray, rough, furrowed into rectangular plates.
Twigs: gray, slender, stiff, ending in flat, oblong, hairy brown bud.
Flowers: 1/4" (6 mm) wide; with 5 rounded white corolla lobes; in upright flat, stalkless clusters, 2-4" (5-10 cm) wide; spring.
Fruit: 1/2" (12 mm) long; elliptical, slightly flat, dark blue-black with whitish bloom; thin, slightly sweetish edible pulp; somewhat flat stone; drooping on long slender reddish stalks; maturing in autumn, remaining attached into early winter.

Habitat Moist soils, especially in valleys, and on slopes; in thickets and at borders of forests.

Range SW. Connecticut south to Alabama, west to E. Kansas, and north to SE. Wisconsin and SW. Iowa; to 3000' (914 m).

Discussion The fruit is consumed by songbirds, gamebirds, and mammals and can be made into preserves. The astringent bark was formerly used medicinally. The Latin species name refers to the leaves' resemblance to plum leaves.