Black Cherry
Prunus serotina
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Black cherry grows from western Minnesota southward to eastern Texas, and eastward to the Atlantic between central Florida and Nova Scotia. It also grows in outlying communities in central Texas, in the mountain of west Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and from Mexico to Guatemala. It prefers well-drained soils, and other preferences depend on regional variety.
Fruit: a 1/2" dark purple to black drupe. They ripen in late summer to early fall, and fall shortly after.
Flowers: A 3-4" long white flower arranged in racemes. They appear with the leaves in late April to May.
Uses: Black cherry is highly valued as a furniture wood. The fruit can be eaten alone or made into jelly, wine, and more.
Ethnobotany: The bark was historically used as a cough remedy, a tonic, and a sedative. The fruit was used to flavor rum and brandy.
Importance to wildlife: A large number of animals eat the fruit. Black cherry is a larval host for a number of butterflies.
The bark of a black cherry. Young bark is dark red or reddish brown, glossy, and smooth apart from horizontal lenticels. Older bark is darker with scales that have upturned edges.
Branches on a black cherry. Black cherries have narrowly spreading branches. Twigs are also quite slender.
A single leaf on a black cherry. Leaves are 6-12 cm long, finely toothed, rounded to broadly wedge shaped at base, glossy above, and pale and mostly glabrous beneath. Petioles usually have small glands near the base of the blade, slightly visible in this photo.
Rusty, wooly hair along the lower midrib of a black cherry leaf.
The terminal bud of a black cherry. Buds are 3-5 mm long, ovoid, bluntly pointed, reddish brown but sometimes with greenish upper scales, glossy, with 4-6 visible scales.
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