black cherry

not listed

N5 - Secure

SNR - Unranked

not listed

FACU - Facultative upland

FACU - Facultative upland

FACU - Facultative upland

Black cherry is a small to medium-sized, moderately fast-growing, deciduous tree. It rises on a single stem from a shallow, spreading root system and occasional 36″ to 48″ long sinker roots. Most roots are within 24″ of the soil surface. It is not colonial. It is the largest member of the Prunus family. In the eastern part of its range it is a large, well-formed tree and is commonly up to 129′ in height and 48″ in diameter at breast height. In Minnesota it is usually a small to medium sized tree, 40′ to 60′ tall and up to 24″ in diameter. On good sites it can reach 80′ or more in height but is rarely more than 100′ tall. It is moderately long-lived, often reaching 150 years of age, with older individuals up to 200 years old.

The trunk is slender, sinuous, little tapered, and often crooked. In the forest it develops a long, straight, branch-free bole and a smallish, rounded, taller than wide crown. On open sites the bole is shorter and the crown is broad and irregular. The branches are arching with drooping tips.

The bark on young trees is smooth and dark reddish-brown, with numerous conspicuous, grayish, horizontal lines (lenticels). As it ages the bark turns light grayish-brown. On mature trees the bark remains thin and is broken into squarish, flat scales that curl outward at the sides. They have the appearance of burnt potato chips. The exposed bark beneath the curled edges is reddish-brown. As the tree ages the scales break off revealing smaller, darker scales beneath. Bark on older trees thicker but still relatively thin and is broken into layers of reddish-brown to blackish scales. The scales are small and squarish, lack lenticels, and have upturned edges. They have the appearance of burnt corn flakes. The very dark, blackish, very scaly bark makes for easy identification of this tree in all seasons.

First-year twigs are slender, hairless, and green to reddish, soon becoming dark reddish-brown. Second-year twigs are grayish-brown with round to oval lenticels and tiny black spots. They have an outer grayish skin that wears off. When scratched the twigs have a bitter almond odor and taste.

Buds are reddish-gray, sharply pointed, and small, only about ⅛″ long. They are held slightly away from the twig. They are covered with about 10 scales. The scales are pointed, glossy, bright reddish-brown at the tip, and green at the base. The leaf scars are small, semi-circular, raised and have 3 bundle scars. The pith is solid.

The leaves are alternate, usually oblong elliptical, sometimes somewhat egg-shaped, 2¼″ to 4¾″long, and 1″ to 2″ wide. They are 2 to 3 times as long as wide. They are attached to the twig on ⅜″ to ⅞″ long leaf stalks. The leaf stalk is usually hairless and has 1 or a few stalkless glands near the point where the blade attaches to the stalk. The blade is tapered or rounded at the base and tapers to a point at the tip with concave sides along the tip. There is a prominent midrib and usually 15 or more pairs of inconspicuous lateral veins. The upper surface is dark green, shiny, and hairless. The lower surface is pale green and hairless except for a narrow patch of rust-colored hairs along both sides of the midvein on the lower ½ or ⅓ of the blade. The margins are finely, singly toothed. The teeth are short, inward-curved, and tipped with a minute, hard, gland-like thickening. The leaves turn yellow to yellowish-red in autumn.

The inflorescence is a dense, elongated, unbranched cluster (raceme) of 20 to 60 flowers at the end of short, leafy shoots of the current season. The racemes are cylinder shaped, 3″ to 6″ long, and about ¾″wide. Each flower is on a hairless, ⅛″ to 5 ⁄16″ long stalk.

The flowers are ⅜″ to ⅝″ in diameter. They open in mid-May to mid-June when the leaves reach full size. There are 5 sepals, 5 petals, 15 to 22 stamens, and 1 style. The sepals are green and 1 ⁄64″ to 1 ⁄32″ long. The petals are white, 1 ⁄16″ to ⅛″ long, and conspicuously narrowed at the base (clawed). The claw is about 1 ⁄32″ long. The expanded portion of the petal is circular, cupped, and about ⅛″ wide. The stamens have ⅛″ long, translucent green filaments and yellow anthers.

The fruit is a fleshy, one-seeded, spherical or inversely egg-shaped, ¼″ to 7 ⁄16″ in diameter drupe. It is green at first, red later in the season, and finally dark reddish-black when it matures in early August to early September. The sepals persist in fruit. The ripe fruit is astringent but edible when ripe.

40′ to 80′

The champion black cherry in Minnesota is on private property near St. Peter, in Nicollet County. In 2019 it was measured at 120′ tall and 99″ in circumference (31½″ in diameter).

White

Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana var. virginiana) is usually a shrub with multiple stems. The leaves are wider, 1½ to 2 times as long as wide. The lower leaf surface has whitish or yellowish hairs in the axils of the lateral veins. The teeth on the margins are straight, not curved inward. They have a sharp tip with no gland-like thickening. The sepals do not persist in fruit.

Dry to moderate moisture. Well-drained, upland forests.

Mid-May to mid-June

Black cherry is a host for eastern tiger swallowtail.

Black cherry finger gall mite (Eriophyes cerasicrumena) causes a small, narrow, erect, finger-like gall on the upper side of leaves. When present, there are a few to many galls on each infected leaf.

Cherry Leaf Spot (Blumeriella jaapii) causes small purple spots on the leaves. Later, the spots turn brown, separate from the green tissue, and drop off, leaving a “shot hole”. Eventually, the infected leaf turns yellows and falls off.

Rust Fungus (Tranzschelia pruni-spinosae var. americana)

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 24, 28, 29, 30.

Native

Common

Ripening fruit of a black cherry, prunus serotina, August 2019, Freeborn County, Minnesota

Twin trunks, black cherry on left, bur oak on right

Massive trunk on an old growth black cherry in a wood near Faribault, MN

Tree

Inflorescence

Flower

Leaves

Bark

Early Spring

Location: Minneapolis

I just cut down a Chinese black cherry tree in my back yard with a 108” circumference about 2’ above the ground.

Location: Freeborn County, Minnesota

Ripening fruit of a black cherry, prunus serotina

Twin trunks, black cherry on left, bur oak on right

Location: near Faribault, MN

Massive trunk on an old growth black cherry in a wood near Faribault, MN