Black cherry (Prunus serotina): what the agencies record

This page reports what US federal publications say about one tree. It does not identify trees from descriptions or photos and does not say what should be done with any tree. The family overview, tree species in the agency records, explains the sources and holds the comparison table.

At a glance

Item	What the source records
Scientific name	Prunus serotina Ehrh., rose family
Other names	Wild black cherry, rum cherry and mountain black cherry (Silvics); the Wood Handbook adds cherry and wild cherry
Native status, USDA PLANTS	Native in Canada and in the lower 48 states
Standing, Silvics	The largest of the native cherries and the only one of commercial value
Green weight of the wood, NRS-38	45 lb per cubic foot, without bark

Native range and varieties

The Silvics of North America handbook (Agriculture Handbook 654, 1990) says black cherry grows from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick west to southern Quebec and Ontario into Michigan and eastern Minnesota, south to Iowa, extreme eastern Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas, then east to central Florida. It lists four varieties that extend the range: Alabama black cherry in eastern Georgia, northeastern Alabama and northwest Florida; escarpment cherry on the Edwards Plateau of central Texas; southwestern black cherry from the Trans-Pecos mountains of Texas west to Arizona and into Mexico; and capulin black cherry from central Mexico to Guatemala. The handbook says large, high-quality trees suited for furniture wood or veneer are found in large numbers on the Allegheny Plateau of Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia, and that elsewhere black cherry is often a small, poorly formed tree of relatively low commercial value but important to wildlife for its fruit.

Growth

Silvics says black cherry grows very fast in the seedling, sapling and pole stages and generally overtops associates such as sugar maple and beech. It keeps this growth advantage for 60 to 80 years, and beyond age 80 to 100 years diameter growth slows and mortality increases rapidly. The handbook gives average annual diameter growth of dominants and codominants as possibly 0.65 cm (0.25 in) between ages 10 and 40, 0.5 cm (0.20 in) between ages 40 and 70, and 0.4 cm (0.15 in) between ages 70 and 100.

Flowers and fruit

The handbook says that unlike domestic cherries, which flower before the leaves appear, black cherry flowers late in relation to leaf development. At 41 to 42 degrees north in Pennsylvania and New York the flowers usually appear around May 15 to May 20, and elsewhere the date varies from the end of March in Texas to the first week of June in Quebec. The flowers are white, perfect and insect pollinated, in umbel-like racemes. The fruit is a one-seeded drupe about 10 mm (0.38 in) in diameter with a bony stone. Late spring frosts may damage the flowers before they open.

Roots

Silvics says the root system is predominantly spreading and shallow, even in well-drained soils. Most roots are in the upper 60 cm (24 in) of soil or less, with occasional sinker roots to depths of 90 to 120 cm (36 to 48 in). It adds that because black cherry tends to grow taller than associated species in mixed stands, it is vulnerable to windthrow, especially on poorly drained soils and at older ages.

Wood

The Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021) calls black cherry the only native species of Prunus that produces commercial lumber, found from southeastern Canada throughout the eastern half of the United States, with production centered chiefly in the Middle Atlantic States.

Wood Handbook figure	Green	At 12% moisture content
Specific gravity (Table 5-3b)	0.47	0.50
Modulus of rupture, lbf per square inch (Table 5-3b)	8,000	12,300
Side hardness, lbf (Table 5-3b)	660	950
Moisture content of green heartwood, percent (Table 4-1)	58	Not applicable

The green weight of the wood is in the NRS-38 table, the same figure used in the log weight calculator.

Pests and diseases the handbook names

Silvics (1990) names these causes of damage.

Defoliators. The eastern tent caterpillar and the cherry scallop shell moth, with some apparent growth loss and occasional mortality if heavy defoliation occurs several years in a row.
Gum defects. The handbook says insects cause gum spots in the wood and reduce timber quality, with the cambium miner Phytobia pruni, the peach bark beetle and the lesser peachtree borer among those associated with them.
Leaf spot. Cherry leaf spot, from Coccomyces lutescens, which it calls the most common disease.
Black knot. A native disease from the fungus Apiosporina morbosa, which the handbook says causes elongated rough black swellings several times the diameter of the normal stem.
Canker. Cytospora leucostoma, responsible for widespread branch mortality of black cherry in Pennsylvania.
Root, butt and trunk rots. Armillaria mellea, Coniophora cerebella, Polyporus berkeleyi and Fomes fomentarius among others.
Animals. Porcupines, meadow mice and voles that girdle stems, and white-tailed deer browsing, which the handbook calls the most serious problem of black cherry in parts of Pennsylvania.

The handbook also says the leaves, twigs and bark contain cyanide in bound form, as a compound called prunasin, that is released when foliage wilts, and that livestock eating wilted foliage may get sick or die. The guide on reporting a pest in the United States gives the office that takes sightings of regulated pests, and pests and diseases by country sets out which ones agencies regulate. Who may apply pesticides is in pesticide licences by country.