Black Cherry

Other names and notes
Trees and Shrubs of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Common
Name

Scientific
Name

Plant
Family

Garden
Location

Flowering
Season
Black Cherry
Prunus serotina Ehrh.
Rose (Rosaceae)
Woodland
Spring Flowering - late April to May

(Black Wild Cherry, Whiskey Cherry, Rum-cherry). The Black Cherry is a large native tree that in Minnesota grows to a height of 50 feet or more. Bark of young limbs is smooth with conspicuous horizontal lenticels (ridges of pore openings). Twigs are reddish brown, slender, with white lenticels. The buds have glossy reddish brown to greenish brown scales. Leaf scars are semicircular. Crushed twigs have a bitter odor and taste of almond. The inner bark is aromatic. The bark of larger trees is dark brown to black, fissured and scaly, and breaks off in patches. The alternate leaves are simple, ovate to lanceolate, no hair on top and usually with white hair that turns reddish on the underside along the midrib near the base of the leaf which is up to 6" long 2" wide. Leaf edges are finely toothed. Leaves are attacked by a minute mite causing galls on the upper surface (see photo below). The flowers are 5-parted, white petals, and occur in a dense 4 to 6" long cylindrical raceme which may droop downward and grows at the end of new twig growth. Each flower is about 1/2" wide, has 5 white petals, 5 shorter sepals, numerous stamens and a pistil where the stigma is flattened. Fruit: The flowers mature in late summer into round berries, up to 1/3" in diameter, resembling miniature cherries, and which contain a single black stone. Ripe fruit is black, and has s slightly bitter but rich, winey flavor. Trees require about 10 years to begin producing seed and the best production is on trees over 30 years old.

Habitat: The plant grows in forest openings, edge rows and does best as a second generation tree following removal of the first generation trees. It is shade tolerant and will grow as an understory tree, but not to its best ability and usually will not flower. The plant has a shallow root system and is susceptible to wind blow down. Names: The large genus, Prunus, is named after the Latin word for the plum. The species, serotina, means 'late in flowering'. The author name “Ehrh.” is for Jokob Friedrich Ehrhart (1742-1795), German botanist, pupil of Linnaeus, director of the Botanical Garden of Hannover and the first author to use subspecies in botanical literature. Comparisons: Flowers and fruits resemble the Chokecherry shrub.

Hazard: Like the chokecherry, the leaves, twigs, bark and seed are somewhat toxic as they contain a cyanogenic glycoside. Browsing livestock are affected but native mammals like deer do not seem to be.
Black cherry new raceme
 Black Cherry Green fruit
Above Top: The flower raceme forms at the same time as the leaves unfold. Below: Flower buds fill numerous racemes near the ends of branches. Above: Green fruit formed 30 days after first flowering. Note the reddish color of young twigs. Below: Black Cherry fruit turning from red to the mature black color.
Black Cherry Flower Buds
 Black Cherry Fruit
Below left and right: A typical flower raceme filled with buds and flowers showing the conspicuous stamens, pistil with flattened style, and the pinkish centers.
Balck Cherry full flower Black Cherry flower detail
Below: The toxic pits of the Wild Black cherry compared in size to the drupe itself. Below: Comparison of the relative sizes of the pits of Chokecherry (on the right) and Wild Black Cherry (on the left). Note size and color differences. Both are toxic.
Wild black cherry pits Cherry pit comparison
Black Cherry Twig Left: Twigs (spring twig shown) are reddish brown, slender, with white lenticels. The buds have glossy reddish brown to greenish brown scales. Leaf scars are semicircular. Crushed twigs have a bitter odor and taste of almond.
Below: The ovate alternate leaves.
Below: The underside of a young leaf showing the white midrib hair which ages to brown.
Below: The underside midrib showing the brownish fine hair of maturity.
Black Cherry leaves
Black cherry leaf underside
Black cherry mature leaf
Below: The Black Cherry leaf is attacked by a tiny mite, Eriophyes cerasicrumena, known as the "black cherry finger gall mite". It causes these reddish club shaped eruptions on the leaf surface. Below left: The scaly bark of a mature Black Cherry - Unless you look at the entire tree, some may confuse Common Buckthorn bark, below right, with the Black Cherry, below center.
Black Cherry Leaf Gall Black Cherry Bark Common buckthorn
Cary Geroge with Black Cherry Black Cherry Red Fruit Black Cherry black fruit
Above: Former Eloise Butler Gardener Cary George with the Garden's large Black Cherry that is a Minneapolis Heritage Tree. Note the large trunk height. It grows near the Hemlocks and has kept up with their growth. Above: You will find it unusual to see so many cherries turning color that are still on the tree as wildlife begins to feast as soon as the green berries are fully formed. Ten to eleven weeks after flowering the berries are the mature black color.
 
Black Cherry Flower racemes  

Notes: Eloise Butler planted Black Cherry in the Garden on May 28, 1909 with plants from the Park Board Nursery, and again on Oct. 3, 1913 with seedlings transplanted from Brownie's pond (presumably the one next to Cedar Lake in Minneapolis). It has been listed on each Garden census since then. Gardener Cary George added more in 1989. Ten additional trees were planted by Curator Susan Wilkins in 2008. One specimen in the Garden is a Minneapolis Heritage Tree. Black Cherry is native to the eastern half of North America and in the U.S. its western range is the extent of the original tall grass prairie - out to Nebraska and Kansas. Its range then extends southwest along the southern edge of the U.S. as far west as Arizona. As it is a woodland tree, in Minnesota it is found in counties in a diagonal band from the SE to the NW - basically the old 'Big Woods'. Absent in the NE and SW.

Lore and uses: The fruit of the Black Cherry has uses similar to the Chokecherry - eaten, jelly, wine, etc. as long as precautions are taken to remove the pits which contain the toxin. Densmore (Ref. 5) in her study of the Minnesota Chippewa reports on the use of the berries for food. The Chippewa would squeeze them in their hands and make them into little cakes, dry them on birch bark, without cooking, and then store them for later use for cooking. Mixed with dried meat, they made pemmican. They also made a decoction from the root or of the bark, which was used for ulcers and cholera infantum. For scrofulous neck, the recipe was - use fresh roots mashed as a poultice; or to scrape the inner bark, boil, and use as a water wash. More medicine below. Black Cherry is the source of cherry wood for cabinet wood and furniture. The common name "rum-cherry" came about from the Colonial use of flavoring a tavern drink with rum - "cherry bounce" as it was called.

Medicinally, it has been the inner bark where the glycoside is concentrated as are acids and traces of volatile oil, that has been used to prepare tonics for coughs and for sedatives and as an astringent. The inner bark has been listed in the USP (United States Pharmacopoeia) from 1820 to the present and in the NF (National Formulary) since the 1888 1st edition. Bark is preferred to be collected in the autumn. The chemicals in the bark act as a sedative and expectorant and are also used today as a flavoring agent. Bark tea is used for coughs, colds and cholera. John Lloyd (Ref. #21) wrote that no more popular bark, except for sassafras, is known for home medication. Meriwether Lewis was once ill with abdominal cramps and fever on the Upper Missouri and took a decoction of the twigs and was well the next day. Pennsylvania Dutch frequently drank wild cherry tea made from bark and fruit. Tea of bark was given to Cherokee women in the first pains of childbirth. The Potawatomies used the bark for an eyewash and made a tonic cough drink from the berries. The Menominees pounded the inner bark for a poultice on a wound. The list goes on and on.

  
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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 32, W2, W3, W7 & W8 plus others as specifically applies. Distribution principally from Wi, W2 and 28C. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.  
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