Black Cherry: Encyclopedia - Black Cherry

Black Cherry

The Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) is a species of cherry, native to eastern North America from southern Quebec and Ontario south to Texas and central Florida. It is a species in the subgenus Padus with flowers in racemes, and is a deciduous tree growing to 15-30 m tall.

The leaves are simple, 6-14 cm long, with a serrated margin. The fruit are 1 cm in diameter, somewhat astringent and bitter to eat fresh, but suitable for making jam and cherry pies; they are also readily eaten by birds, which do not taste astringency as unpleasant.

It is closely related to the Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), from which it differs in the larger leaves and the cherries, which when ripe are black (hence the name), not red.

This is perhaps the premier cabinetry timber of the US, traded as "cherry".

Categories: Rosaceae | Wood

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Black Cherry", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki