Berry Identification

Hello all! First post, thanks for having such a great forum. I have a berry plant that I can not seem to identify. I live in the mountains of Virginia, elevation of 2000 feet. This plant(bush) is growing in hardwood forest. From the picture you can see the berry and leaves. There are two sizes and style of leaf, they are both the same plant. I suspect the smaller leaves are the new growth. The berry seems to get a very light purple shade when ripe. The berries are still ripening now in early September. Any ideas? Thanks!

Jesse, do you have a bigger picture of the plant that you can share, with detail on what the leaves and fully ripe fruit look like.

My initial thought was serviceberry/saskatoon - but you live in Virginia. Not to say someone couldn't have planted some there in the past.

My guess is it is a crabapple tree. Some varieties are that small, some are even smaller.

Here is a better picture of the leaves, hopefully.

Here is an idea of what the plant looks like as a whole.

Bill, I believe the berries in my hand are what they look like ripe or at least close to it. Those had fallen on the ground. You can see they are a very slight shade of purple and the berries still on the plant are very green.

Jesse, looking on line I found a free publication that might have answers. Here's the Linky Thing to it.

My basic take is that you may have a hackberry or sugarberry plant there. The pictures on line look similar. I would try contacting your local extension agent and see what they think as well.

Are they edible?

I do not know if they are edible. I have not tried them. The bushes are between 2-6 feet in height. They resemble a huckleberry plant but bigger. The berry does look similar to some gooseberry pictures I have seen but the leaves are not even close. I am going to try and contact my extension agent to see if he has seen these and can identify them.