The colorful berries of our two fleshy fruited species are reputed to be poisonous, although no fatalities from eating them are recorded.

1. Fruit a follicle; raceme elongate (> 10 cm long), often with branches at the base.

A. racemosa

1. Fruit a fleshy berry; racemes shorter (< 10 cm long), unbranched.

2. Pedicels soon thickening, in fruit usually almost or quite as thick as the axis of the raceme and equally red; fruit white, capped by a conspicuous dark stigma ca. 1.5-2.5 mm in diameter; petals ± truncate, withered in appearance or even anther-like at the tip.

A. pachypoda

2. Pedicels slender, not exceeding 0.5 (-0.7) mm in diameter, even in fruit; fruit red or white, capped with a relatively inconspicuous stigma (less than 1.5 mm across); petals not modified at the tip.

A. rubra