Black Cherry
Scientific name: Prunus serotina
This tree is perhaps best known for its fine grained red-brown wood, which is used in high end cabinetry and other woodworking. It is known to be fast growing (if it has adequate sun) and can achieve up to 90 feet in height. Examples of Black Cherry trees can be found at the Old Field Preserve in Wacccabuc, where they grow in the abandoned fields. The cherry fruit is ripe when black, giving this tree its name.
Leaves
Fruit
The fruit is a berry, called a drupe, ripens in fall to a blackish color. It has a single seed, which can be spread by birds.
Flowers
While most trees flower before leafing out, the black cherry is different. Its leaves come out first , followed by white flowers called “racemes”.
Did You Know?
The repulsive smell of the twigs when broken is due to the chemical cyanide which keeps animals from eating the leaves and twigs.
Habitat
This tree needs sunlight to grow. It is called a pioneer species because it spreads and grows quickly in areas that have been recently disturbed by fire, logging or clearing. Birds eat the cherries and spread the seeds far and wide.
Leaves
Bark
A mature tree has a broken grey thin bark which forms large flakes, children think it looks like ‘burnt potato chips’. In a young tree, the bark is smooth, like that of a birch.
Fruit
The fruit is a berry, called a drupe, ripens in fall to a blackish color. It has a single seed, which can be spread by birds.
Flowers
While most trees flower before leafing out, the black cherry is different. Its leaves come out first , followed by white flowers called “racemes”.
Ecosystem Connections
The cherries are an important food source for many birds.
Human Connections
The fruit has also been used to flavor brandies and rum. It is also good to eat! In the past, a cherry syrup was made from the bark for coughs. Warning- most of the plant is toxic!
This type of flower
is called a "raceme".
Black Cherry Tree in Field
Black Cherry Fruit (drupe)
More on Trees and Shrubs in Lewisboro
Lewisboro was once entirely forested except for patches of open field caused by fire and wetlands and ponds which were expanded by beaver dams. Although it is hard to believe, by 1800 most of Lewisboro’s forests had been cut down and replaced by farms. In 1820 so many trees had been cleared that there was no shade anywhere along the route from Boston to New York.[1] But by the mid-1800’s farming here became uneconomical and as farms were abandoned, the forests began to re-grow. Today, 70% of New York is once again forest, what some call ‘the great environmental story of the United States’[2]. These new forests provide us with beauty and recreation, clean air and water, flood control, erosion prevention, carbon sequestration, cooler temperatures and habitat for other plants, insects, birds and other wildlife.
[1] Cronon, William. Changes in the Land. Macmillan, 1983.
[2] An Explosion of Green. B. Mckibben. Atlantic Monthly 275 (April 1995): 61-83.