- Name
- Black Cherry
- Common Names
- Scientific Name
- Prunus serotina
- Family
- Rosaceae
- Description
- Black Cherry is a deciduous hardwood tree that may grow 60 to 80 feet tall. The wood is valued for furniture making, veneers, and instrument/tool handles. The fruit appears as drooping clusters of small red cherries (to 3/8” diameter) that ripen in late summer to dark purple-black. The fruits are bitter and inedible fresh off the tree but can be used to make jams and jellies.
- Leaves
- The leaves (2 to 5 inches) and twigs have a cherry fragrance and bitter taste. The leaves are alternate with a finely toothed margin, inconspicuous glands on the stem and yellow-brown pubescence on the underside of the leaf. Dark green above pale below leaves.
- Flowers
- The Black Cherry has fragrant white flowers in slender pendulous clusters (racemes to 6” long) which appear with the foliage in spring (late April-May). White to pink hanging narrow clusters flowers.
- Bloom Time
- Late-April to May
- Pollen Source
- fair
- Nectar Source
- fair
- Pollen Color
- brownish
- Native to NC
- Yes
