Pomegranate

Eastern Australian temperate forests

Edwards Plateau savanna

Fynbos shrubland

New Zealand North Island temperate forests

Piney Woods

Willamette Valley oak savanna

Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

Puget lowland forests

A small native tree with white spring flowers, edible summer berries, and copper to red fall color.

Plant this, not that

Better fit for this place

For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.

Amelanchier canadensis

Canadian serviceberry

Filbert (Corylus maxima) is a large deciduous shrub native to southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, from the Balkans through to Ordu in Turkey, where it has been cultivated for its larger-than-hazelnut edible fruits for millennia. In the garden it doubles as bold structural foliage - especially the wine-purple cultivar 'Purpurea' - making it as much an ornamental as a productive shrub. The honest catch is its sheer bulk and suckering ambition: left unmanaged it rapidly forms an impenetrable multi-stemmed thicket 20 to 33 feet tall, requires another Corylus nearby for worthwhile nut crops, and squirrels reliably harvest the nuts before the gardener does.

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Corylus maxima

Filbert

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Akebia quinata

Chocolate vine

Chocolate vine is a vigorous, twining woody climber native to China, Japan, and Korea, producing clusters of spice-scented purple-maroon flowers in spring and large sausage-shaped fruits in autumn. It adapts readily to most well-drained soils in sun or part-shade and covers structures fast, making it a striking focal-point plant for walls, fences, and pergolas. The honest catch is its invasive potential: it smothers native shrubs and trees by blocking sunlight and is listed as invasive across much of the US East Coast and the Pacific Northwest, so it must not be planted where it can escape into natural areas, and annual hard pruning is essential to keep it under control.

A tough, adaptable deciduous large shrub or small tree, Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) opens clusters of bright yellow flowers on bare stems in late winter - among the earliest woody nectar of the year - then ripens glossy red, olive-shaped edible fruit and finishes with good autumn colour. Native to central and southern Europe and western Asia (POWO), it carries the RHS Award of Garden Merit and is rated fully hardy (H6).

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Cornus mas

Cornelian cherry

The Mediterranean evergreen whose leathery, glossy dark-green leaves are the bay leaf of the kitchen. Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder describes it as a pyramidal, aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub that can reach 60 feet but is usually seen at 10 to 30 feet and is often pruned to 8 feet or less for garden use. Trees are dioecious: small yellowish-green spring flowers on female plants, if pollinated, give way to single-seeded purple-black berries. Winter hardy only to USDA Zone 8, so it is grown as a clipped container houseplant farther north.

Full sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Laurus nobilis

Bay laurel

A small native tree with white spring flowers, edible summer berries, and copper to red fall color.

Full sun / Part shade

Amelanchier canadensis

Canadian serviceberry

Chocolate vine is a vigorous, twining woody climber native to China, Japan, and Korea, producing clusters of spice-scented purple-maroon flowers in spring and large sausage-shaped fruits in autumn. It adapts readily to most well-drained soils in sun or part-shade and covers structures fast, making it a striking focal-point plant for walls, fences, and pergolas. The honest catch is its invasive potential: it smothers native shrubs and trees by blocking sunlight and is listed as invasive across much of the US East Coast and the Pacific Northwest, so it must not be planted where it can escape into natural areas, and annual hard pruning is essential to keep it under control.

A tough, adaptable deciduous large shrub or small tree, Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas) opens clusters of bright yellow flowers on bare stems in late winter - among the earliest woody nectar of the year - then ripens glossy red, olive-shaped edible fruit and finishes with good autumn colour. Native to central and southern Europe and western Asia (POWO), it carries the RHS Award of Garden Merit and is rated fully hardy (H6).

Filbert (Corylus maxima) is a large deciduous shrub native to southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, from the Balkans through to Ordu in Turkey, where it has been cultivated for its larger-than-hazelnut edible fruits for millennia. In the garden it doubles as bold structural foliage - especially the wine-purple cultivar 'Purpurea' - making it as much an ornamental as a productive shrub. The honest catch is its sheer bulk and suckering ambition: left unmanaged it rapidly forms an impenetrable multi-stemmed thicket 20 to 33 feet tall, requires another Corylus nearby for worthwhile nut crops, and squirrels reliably harvest the nuts before the gardener does.

Full sun / Part shade

A fast, suckering native shrub of streambanks and moist thickets across eastern North America, grown for huge flat-topped cymes of tiny lemon-scented white flowers in early summer and the clusters of dark elderberry drupes that follow. Spreads by root suckers into naturalized colonies 5 to 12 feet tall and wide; the flowers feed butterflies and the showy fruit feeds birds. The raw berries are not eaten fresh - they are cooked into jelly, pie, and wine.