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Comments
Cazort, Yes, you generally can count on somewhat similar, even uniform vegetation and wildlife for Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Wild black cherry trees are one of my absolute favorite trees precisely for the reasons which you give. Also, I like the way the bark is so attractive, so distinctive, so predictable in its horizontal rings. All the animals seem to feel the same positive way since there's competition for the cherries. Even the fireflies tend to cluster around them, especially at the tops -- if they're males -- like they do with the black walnuts and white pines.
Me too, I appreciate the more flexible harvests and the sour and sweet options in wild cherries. It's as adventurous to gather wild cherries as it is to collect the ground cover (small, sour, but scrumptious) strawberries, which are harvestable from April through October.
I love the wild black cherry trees...I think it is exactly this same species, that grows in my area (Southeast PA and Delaware). I also love that they support the native wildlife, and I like how you highlight examples of this in this page.
As I've grown older I have come to prefer slightly more bitter and less sweet tastes, and I have come to find the fruit of this tree absolutely delightful. They have a richness that the sweet cherries bought at the supermarket lack. I also like that they come ripe rather late in the summer at a time when most other fruit has already passed its season locally. It's rather convenient, as you can plant some of the cultivated cherries, which come ripe earlier, and then enjoy these after the other cherry season has long passed.