Black Cherry (Prunus serotina): Spring's Early Snow White Splendor

Prunus serotina, in the family Rosaceae, is known commonly as black cherry, mountain black cherry, rum cherry, or wild black cherry.

A black cherry tree in my yard: Beauty follows beauty

Black cherry trees flower early in the spring. In the northern quadrant of my yard a young black cherry tree quietly flourishes a few feet away from two Eastern white pine trees (Pinus strobus). It is a wind-seeded tree, a miracle tree, for the seed traveled from a considerable distance as there are no other black cherry trees in the visible vicinity.

The sapling emerged after Bullseye, the winsome chestnut standard-bred horse who was my devoted neighbor for two halcyon years, mysteriously exited from my neighborhood. That spot was favored by Bullseye for grazing and for whinnying for his treasured peppermint candies. After a year of unremitting wildness, the quadrant was mowed, and in the process the black cherry sapling was discovered at home in the hallowed spot. Beauty follows beauty.

Prunus serotina is native to eastern North America. Two subspecies are distinguished by their geographical nativity.

Prunus serotina subspecies serotina ranges in its northern extent from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in eastern Canada into southern Ontario and Quebec.

Prunus serotina slips over the border, where it stretches across the eastern United States to its southern extent from central Florida west to Texas. Black cherry sweeps across the Midwest and dips into the eastern parts of the Great Plains states of Nebraska and Oklahoma. Prunus serotina has a disjunct distribution, also called range fragmentation, in the United States as its primarily eastern to midwestern population is separated from its populations in Arizona and New Mexico.

Prunus serotina subspecies capuli (Cav.) McVaugh references its native distribution in mountainous areas of Guatemala and Mexico.

U.S.D.A. Hardiness Zones

With its winter thrivability at temperatures ranging from -40º to -30º F. (-40º to -34º C.) up to 20º to 30º F. (-7º to -1º C.), Prunus serotina is classed in U.S.D.A. Hardiness Zones 3 to 9.

Black cherry flowers, white in color, have five petals and about twenty stamens (Latin: stamen “thread of the warp”), which produce pollen.

Prunus serotina flowers are pedicellate as they develop on pedicels, short stalks that connect flowers to the main stems (peduncles), with flowers opening in succession as they are borne along the growing shoot (peduncle). This type of inflorescence (flower clusters on a shoot), which is reminiscent of grape clusters, is known as raceme (Latin: racemus “bunch of grapes” and Greek: rhag-, rhax “grape”). Racemes exhibit indeterminate growth, meaning that growth, with flower and fruit production, only cease with intervention from an external factor, such as frost.

With a fleshy exterior encasing its seed, black cherry fruit is classed as a drupe, with one seed per drupe. The fruit ripens to a gorgeous black and has a seductively bitter sweet taste.

Young black cherry trees have smooth bark marked by elongated, horizontal lenticels (Latin: lenticula “lentil”) that resembles sweet birch (Betula lenta) bark.

When scratched, young reddish-brown twigs emit an aroma, and have a taste, redolent of bitter almonds.

As trees mature, their bark, now dark grey to black, separates into distinctive upturned plates with wriggly edges that look like burned corn flakes.

Black cherry leaves are simple, so their oblong-lanceolate outline does  not have the subdivisional shape of oak (Quercus) leaves.

• Length ranges up to 5 inches (13 centimeters), and width measures up to 2 inches (5 centimeters).
• Mature leaves have pale green undersides coated with minute hairs and shiny, dark green upper sides.
• Leaf edges (margins) are serrated, meaning that they resemble a saw with miniature teeth.

Leaf arrangement on the stem, phyllotaxis (Greek: phýllon "leaf" + táxis "arrangement"), is alternate, meaning leaves are attached singly and alternate sides as they emerge along the stem.

As a deciduous tree, black cherry sheds its leaves seasonally in a process called abscission (Latin: ab “away” + scindere “to cut”). Their autumn color, signalling abscission, commonly changes to orange, red, or yellow.

Prunus serotina ranges in height from about 50 feet (15 meters) to over 80 feet (24 meters) in the Appalachian Mountains.

Its lifespan can extend across two and a half centuries.

The culinary appeal of black cherries is acknowledged in a sculpture, "Spoonbridge and Cherry," in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, an 11-acre garden collaboratively overseen by the Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. Weighing 7,000 pounds (3175 kilograms), the huge aluminum and stainless steel sculpture comprises a black cherry at the tip of a spoon.

This enormous sculpture was designed by Claes Oldenburg (born January 28, 1929) and his second wife, Coosje van Bruggen (June 6, 1942 – January 10, 2009). Requiring three years for completion, from 1985 to 1988, the two-part sculpture was constructed separately in two New England shipyards. The 5,800 pound (2630.8 kilogram) spoon, designed by Claes, was built in the Merrifield-Roberts shipyard in Bristol, southeastern Rhode Island, while the 1,200 pound (544 kilogram) cherry, designed by Coosje, was fabricated by Paul E. Luke, Inc., East Boothbay, in southern Maine. Paint was supplied by Lippincott, Inc., printers in North Haven, southern Connecticut.

This iconic colossus of the Twin Cities further delights with its fountain duet. Water is expelled from both ends of the 12-foot (3.6 meter) stem:

• as a spray from the top and
• as a cascade from the base.

Constantly flowing water captures deliciously the shine with which black cherries beckon and entice.

Black cherry leaves, especially in wiltage, may be fatally toxic to domestic livestock as cyanogenic glycosides in the foliage are converted by stressors, such as consumption, into hydrogen cyanide (HCN).

Unwilted foliage is easily consumed by deer without adverse effect.

Black cherry leaves are not toxic to Eastern tent caterpillars (Malacosoma americanum), which satiate themselves often to the point of tree defoliation.

Other caterpillars feasting on the leaves include:

• Eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus),
• painted lady (genus Vanessa),
• red spotted purple (Limenitis arthemis), and
• Viceroy (Limenitis archippus).

Prunus serotina bark is favored by porcupines (New World family Erethizontidae).

Black cherry fruit is enjoyed by many small to large mammals, including:

• black bears (Ursus americanus),
• opossums (family Didelphidae), and
• raccoons (Procyon lotor).

The fruit appeals to many birds, such as:

• Eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis),
• blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata),
• Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis),
• Northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), and
• brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum).

Prunus serotina is one of the first North American trees introduced into Europe from the New World. According to genetic research, Prunus serotina transports across the Atlantic were culled primarily from areas east of the Appalachian Mountains and especially from the Allegheny Plateau, which traverses western and central New York, eastern Ohio, northern and western Pennsylvania, and northern and western West Virginia. Prunus serotina was first planted in the Old World as an ornamental and subsequently as forestial.

Wherever Prunus serotina grows, natively, naturalized, or virtually, its inherent attractiveness and its beneficence to nature, including humans, enhance its habitats. From the adornment of its snow white splendor in early spring to its food offerings as a living organism to humans and to an array of other entities in nature, black cherry trees lead a generous existence. Their grace often lives after them, as well, in their transformation into splendid cabinetry and furniture, among other reincarnations. Prunus serotina is, indeed, a pleasure to behold.

My special thanks to:

• Talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the Internet;

• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for superior on-campus and on-line resources.

“Black Cherry Prunus serotina.” Island Creek Elementary School > Study of Northern Virginia Ecology. Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax County, Virginia. Web. www.fcps.edu

• Available at: http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_cherry.htm

Engberg, Siri. "Claes Oldenburg." Walker Art > Collections > Artists. 1998. Walker Art Center. Web. www.walkerart.org

• Available at: http://www.walkerart.org/collections/artists/claes-oldenburg

Erichsen-Brown, Charlotte. Medicinal and Other Uses of North American Plants: A Historical Survey with Special Reference to the Eastern Indian Tribes. New York: Dover Publications, 1989.

Hugo, Nancy Ross. Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees. Photography by Robert Llewellyn. Portland and London: Timber Press, 2011.

Jenkins, Janet. "Spoonbridge and Cherry." Walker Art > Collections > Artworks. 1998. Walker Art Center. Web. www.walkerart.org

• Available at: http://www.walkerart.org/collections/artworks/spoonbridge-and-cherry

Marquis, David A. “Prunus serotina Ehrh., Black Cherry.” Silvics of North America. Volume 2: Hardwoods. Agriculture Handbook 654. Washington, D.C.: U.S.D.A. Forest Service, December 1990.

Morren, Jacques Édouard. "Le Cerasus serotina Loisel ou Putiet noir, arbuste ornemental de pleine terre." La Belgique Horticole, Journal des Jardins et des Vergers, Volume 15: 210-212. Liege: La Direction Generale, 1865.

• Available via HathiTrust at: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015052482174?urlappend=%3Bseq=276