Similar species: Page is under construction. Please see link below for general information on the genus Prunus.

Etymology: Prunus is the Latin name for plum.

Author: The Morton Arboretum

Common Name: black cherry

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Tree

Wetland Status: FACU

General: Small deciduous tree to 8 m tall with reddish brown glabrous twigs.

Leaves: Alternate, winter deciduous, ovate to elliptic, acute at base and apex, finely serrate, glabrous or with a few hairs on the veins beneath, 3.5-9 cm long, on petioles 5-15 mm.

Flowers: White, in long, slender glabrous racemes on short branches from the previous year, 3-12 cm long, the 5 white petals broadly obovate, about 3 mm long.

Fruits: Red to purple or black drupe, 6-10 mm wide.

Ecology: Found along streams and in moist canyons from 4,500-7,500 ft (1372-2286 m), flowers March-July.

Distribution: Ranges from Arizona to Texas and south into northern Mexico.

Notes: The finely serrate leaf margins, the reddish bark and the long slender raceme of flowers are all distinctive. P. serotina is not as common as chokecherry, P. virginiana, and is distinguished by the persistant calyx lobes on the underside of the berries; the calyx of P. virginiana is deciduous long before the fruit matures.

Ethnobotany: Infusion of bark taken for colds, fevers, diarrhea, smallpox, consumption, to aid in childbirth and to ease labor pains, laryngitis, a wash for sores and ulcers, and as a disinfectant. One report stated an infusion of bark taken with honey.

Etymology: Prunus is an ancient Latin name for the plum, while serotina means late flowering.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley 2011, AHazelton 2015

Tree to 25 m; bark aromatic, breaking up into small plates and appearing scaly-roughened; lvs firm, lanceolate to oblong or oblanceolate, 6-12 cm, with mostly 15 or more pairs of inconspicuous lateral veins, acuminate at the tip, acute or obtuse at base, finely incurved-serrate; racemes terminating leafy twigs of the current season, 8-15 cm; pedicels 3-6 mm; sep oblong or triangular, 1-1.5 mm, entire or sparsely glandular-erose, persistent under the fr; pet white, 4 mm, with subrotund blade; fr dark purple or black, 1 cm thick, edible when fully ripe; 2n=32. Formerly a forest tree, now abundant as a weed-tree of roadsides, waste land, and forest-margins; N.S. to N.D. and sw. Ont., s. to Fla., Ariz., and Guatemala. May.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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