Black Cherry
Prunus serotina
Genus: Prunus
Subgenus: Padus

Native Range: The largest member of the Prunus genus native to Canada. Toward its northern limit, it may grow as a shrub.

Habitat: Thrives in a variety of soils and is often found mixed with other broadleaf species like sugar maple, white ash, basswood, yellow birch, white oak, shagbark hickory, and tulip-tree. It is intolerant of shade and typically grows in more open areas.

Size & Growth
Typical Height: Medium-sized trees, up to 22 meters high.
Maximum Recorded Height: 22 meters.
Maximum Diameter: 60 cm in diameter.
Growth Form: The trunk is sinuous with little taper. The branches arch with drooping tips, and the root system is shallow and wide-spreading.

Life Span: Can live up to 150 years.
Growth Rate: Fast-growing when young.

Leaf Characteristics
Leaf Type: Deciduous, alternate, simple.
Shape: Lance-shaped, 5-15 cm long, tapering gradually to both ends, sharp-pointed. Teeth are distinctly elongated, with a sharp, incurved tip resembling a bird's beak.
Surface: Shiny bright green on top; paler beneath, with a narrow mat of fine brown hairs along each side of the basal part of the midvein.
Autumn Color: Turns yellow or red in autumn.
Texture: Thick and leathery.
Bud: 3-4 mm long.
Shape: Blunt, reddish-brown, diverging slightly from the twig.
Arrangement: About 10 scale, brown with darker tips and green bases.
Twig
Colour: Slender, reddish-brown.
Growth: New growth forms on short leafy shoots.
Flowers
Color: White.
Size: 5 mm long flower stalks.
Arrangement: Flowers appear in elongated loose clusters, 10-15 cm long, at the end of new short leafy shoots.
Bloom Time: Open as the leaves reach full size, in late spring or early summer.
Fruit
Color: Dark reddish-black.
Size: 8-10 mm across.
Taste: Astringent but edible.
Shape: Fruits are in elongated, drooping clusters of 6-12 fruits, with the lower whorl of the flower calyx retained at the base of each fruit.

Ripening Time: Ripen in August or early September.
Seed Crops: Abundant every 3-4 years.
Rhytidome
Color: Smooth on young trees, very dark reddish-brown to blackish.
Horizontal, dash like, grayish lenticels are conspicuous, and with age, the bark separates into squarish scales that curve outward at their vertical edges. The inner surface of the bark is reddish-brown. Lenticels remain visible throughout the tree's life.
Wood
Characteristics: Moderately heavy, hard, strong, and light to dark reddish-brown. It is decorative, easy to work, semi-ring-porous, with visible pores, rays, and annual rings.
Uses: Widely used in furniture-making due to its fine quality.

Ecological Role & Interactions
Wildlife Value: Fruits are consumed by birds and mammals.
Reproduction: Primarily by seed, but it can also reproduce vegetatively by stump sprouts.
Germination: Seeds are spread by birds, and the tree may sprout from the stump when cut.

Quick Recognition
Key Features: Narrow mat of hairs on the undersurface of the leaves along the midvein, reddish-brown buds with touches of green, and mature bark that is scaly with conspicuous lenticels. The calyx is retained at the base of each fruit.