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Prunus serotina
| The Black Cherry is a medium-sized tree, commonly 15 to 18 metres tall, but can sometimes reach 30.5 meters in height. It grows best in deep, moist soil but also does well in sandy soils, and require lots of sunlight. The wood is hard and strong, which makes it useful in making furniture, but is often a small, poorly formed tree of relatively low commercial value. However, it is important to wildlife for its fruit. Black Cherry trees are not common in the forests of the Algonquin Highlands. The bark is very dark, and breaks up into flaky sections that resemble burned potato chips when mature. This tree has dark green, shiny, oval-shaped leaves, about 5 – 15 cm long. Unlike domestic cherries, which flower before the leaves appear, the Black Cherry flowers late. These flowers contain both the male (pollen-producing) and the female (seed-producing) parts in one structure. They usually appear in May, are white, solitary, and borne in clusters. The flowers of the Cherry tree have a sweet nectar that give off a pleasant fragrance, to encourage insects and birds to visit the flowers, thereby promoting fertilization. Late spring frosts may damage the flowers before they open, and frosts occasionally cause large numbers of newly set fruits to fall without maturing. The fruit is black when ripe. Porcupines sometimes kill Black Cherry trees when they consume its bark, thereby providing entry points for fungi. Meadow mice and meadow voles also cause damage. White-tailed deer, rabbits, and hare feed on Black Cherry seedlings. Its cherries are an important food source for many non-game birds, squirrel, deer, turkey, mice and moles, and other wildlife. They are know to have a bitter taste, but sometimes are used to make jelly. The leaves, twigs, and bark of Black Cherry contain cyanide. During foliage wilting, cyanide is released and domestic livestock that eat wilted foliage may get sick or die. Deer can eat this foliage unharmed. |
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