Chokecherries are, at best, small bushy trees that can grow to 30 feet. Usually they are just big bushes. The eastern U.S. has some wild cherry species that can grow to 60 feet. The west coast states have chokecherries and a few other cherry species. One of them is poisonous and looks something like a chokecherry. Fortunately it is so foul tasting no one will taste a second cherry.
I ran across the poisonous one when I was working as a botanist in Oregon. And yes, I did taste one cherry. I barely broke the skin and then spit it out. I continued spitting all of the 500 feet back to the pickup and then repeatedly washed my mouth out with a quart of water. I would have used another quart but I didn't have any more. After about an hour the last of the taste went way.
A chokecherry tastes like sucking a cherry flavored teabag. You can actually grow to like them in small quantities. The syrup and jelly is excellent.
Windy Ridge