Trees and Shrubs of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

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). Then, in 1915, she discovered a tree growing on the east side of what she termed 'Gentian Meadow' which would classify the tree as indigenous to the Garden. Black Cherry 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, more in 2012. 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.

Heritage Tree: One specimen in the Garden is on the Minneapolis Heritage Tree List. It grows with the Hemlocks near the back gate (photo above) and scored 137.5 points when it was listed in 1985. Its height then was 73 feet and it was 57 inches in circumference.

There are six species of Prunus native to Minnesota: P. americana, American Wild Plum; P. nigra, Canadian Plum (or Cherry); P. pensylvanica, Pin Cherry; P. pumila, Sand Cherry; P. serotina var. serotina, Black Cherry; and P. virginiana var. virginiana, Chokecherry. Several introduced species have also been reported.

Lore: 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. The common name "rum-cherry" came about from the Colonial use of flavoring a cherry tavern drink with rum - "cherry bounce" as it was called.

Uses: Black Cherry is the source of cherry wood for cabinet wood and furniture. The heartwood is of a dull, light red tint, which deepens with age when exposed to light.

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. 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.

Toxicity to cattle: "In America when the wild black cherry, Prunus serotina, is felled, prussic acid concentrates in the foliage as the leaves begin to dry. For some reason such leaves have a special appeal for cattle. Many have died in consequence. It seems curious that in such a life and death matter no instinct warns them of their peril. Perhaps the fact that cattle swallow large quantities of food rapidly and only later bring it back for a thorough chewing reduces their chances of detecting what is harmful." Edwin Way Teale in Springtime in Britain.

Thoreau wrote in his journals about the way the seed is dispersed: "See how artfully the seed of the cherry is placed in order that a bird may be compelled to transport it - in the very midst of a tempting pericarp, so that the creature that would devour this must commonly take the stone also into its mouth or bill. If you ever ate a cherry and did not make two bites of it, you must have perceived it - right in the center of the luscious morsel, a large earthy residuum left on the tongue We thus take into our mouths cherry stones as big as peas, a dozen at once, for Nature can persuade us to do almost anything when she would compass her ends. Some wild men and children instinctively swallow these, like the birds, when in a hurry, as the shortest way to get rid of them. It is only princes who can afford to have their cherry puddings stoned, and so make their lives more completely luxurious and useless; and perhaps they expect to atone for this by their planting a tree with a flourish of trumpets now and then."