Plant of the Week
Wild Black Cherry
Latin: Prunus serotina
Of late, I've become an arm-chair expert on the value of early American
furniture, thanks to the education provided by the appraisers on PBS's Antiques
Road Show. I personally find the simple, yet elegant designs produced in late
18th century New England cabinet shops most appealing. Much of that furniture
was crafted from wild black cherry, my favorite wood for furniture building.
Wild Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) grows everywhere in the eastern
woodlands from Minnesota to Texas and is common throughout Arkansas. It's the
largest cherry, capable of reaching 100 feet with trunks as thick as 4 feet.
Mostly though, we see 50- to 60-foot tall trees with oval to pyramidal forms and
the tips of branches arching downward.
Black cherry leaves are 2 to 4 inches long, glossy green above and paler
beneath. At the base of the leaf blade or on the petiole a prominent gland marks
their membership to the cherry tree clan. Fall color is a subtle yellow to
orange.
Wild black cherry leaves contain prunasin, a cyanide containing sugar
molecule. It's relatively benign unless the leaves are exposed to some kind of
stress such as drought, frost or wilting. Then, prunasin breaks down and
releases cyanide. Cyanide makes it impossible for cells to get oxygen from the
blood, with fatal results. Cattle and horses are sometimes killed by eating
wilted or frosted black cherry foliage.
Black cherry flowers are small, white, five-petaled flowers borne on
finger-size panicles produced at the ends of branches. The pea-size,
red-changing-to-black, berries appear in August and are sometimes used for
jellies or wine making. Cherry bounce, a drink favored in the Appalachian
region, was made by blending fresh squeezed juice with brandy or rum to form a
fruit cordial.
By the end of the 19th century, most of the virgin wild black cherry trees
were gone, and the second-growth trees were decidedly less grand. As a pioneer
species, black cherries move quickly into disturbed sites and make a respectable
12-inch saw log in about 60 years.
The Warren Forestry Science lab in northwestern Pennsylvania shows an
interesting 70-year photographic record of a forest block as it goes through a
period of regrowth after being clearcut. The initial forest consisted mostly of
beech trees when it was cut in 1927. In 1998, when the site was last evaluated,
it contained almost the same number of trees but black cherries now dominated
the site.
Of our forest trees, wild cherries are the most valuable, sharing comparable
value only with black walnut. Stumpage prices for wild cherry logs are in the
$500 to $600 per 1,000 board feet range, but in 1999 a record price was paid of
over $5000 for an especially prime specimen.
To the woodworker wild cherry is a stable wood that holds glue well, doesn't
warp, finishes with a smooth surface and is generally easily worked. The
heartwood is a soft red-brown that develops a beautiful patina as the wood ages.
It's one of those woods you feel the need to pet.
But as a landscape tree, the wild black cherry is second rate - no make that
third rate. Being a pioneer species with lots of berries that birds love, it's
forever coming up in unwanted places in flower beds. At first I battled these
seedlings, but I quickly realized that the three or four small trees on the
property had to go.
Removing trees from the yard sometimes requires a bit of subterfuge, as my
wife still harbors doubts I know what I'm doing when I go outside. She bought
the explanation that borers had killed the trees when I shower her the holes at
the base of the trunk, never making the connection between my new portable drill
and the jug of weedkiller on the workbench.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
February 13, 2004
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