Prunus serotina, Black Cherry

Community: New England Barrier Beach

Native Region: Eastern U.S., Midwest, Central and South America, Eastern Canada (introduced 1629)

Mature Size: height: 50-80′, spread: 30-60′

Habitat: river or stream floodplains, forests, deep, moist, fertile soil, but often grows on drier, sandy soil in the uplands

Hardiness Zone: 3 to 9

Leaves: lustrous dark green leaves that turn yellow to red in fall

Flowers white:

Fruit: red cherries that ripen to dark purple-black

Toxic: humans, very bitter fruit and seeds

Fruit can be eaten raw or cooked in pies, jellies, and stews, and it can taste bitter or sweet. The fruit can also be used as a flavoring. The seed can eaten raw or cooked. An infusion of the twigs can be used as a beverage. An extract from the bark is also used as a flavoring in soft drinks, sweets, syrups and baked goods. Its seeds and leaves contain high quantities of hydrogen cyanide, so any very bitter seed or fruit should not be consumed.

Fruit: humans, songbirds, turkey, chickens, grouse, passerine birds, bears, fox, raccoons, opossum, squirrels, rabbits

Inner Bark: humans

Leaves: deer

Twigs: deer

Toxic: leaves, twigs, bark, and seeds are poisonous to livestock, and seeds and leaves in excess can be toxic to humans

Seed Dispersal: gravity, birds, mammals

Collect Seeds: fall

https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/species/prunus/serotina/

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=g100

https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/pruser/all.html

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=prse2

http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Prunus+serotina