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West Virginia Trees

Chapter 95: WILD RED CHERRY
By A. B. Brooks
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Nature/Gardening/Animals

About This Book

A practical field guide to the native and introduced trees of West Virginia, providing keys based mainly on leaves and fruits, concise family and species descriptions, and detailed line drawings for about 101 native species. It organizes trees by botanical families, gives brief flower notes, a glossary of terms, and suggestions for identifying specimens; occasional introduced species and shrubs are noted. The bulletin emphasizes simplicity for non-specialists, offers measurements and habit descriptions for each species, and includes administrative prefatory material. Its aim is to aid lay readers and students in tree identification and to encourage local interest in forestry.

WILD RED CHERRY

Prunus pennsylvanica, L. f.

Form.—Height 20-35 feet, diameter 8-12 inches; trunk straight, short, tapering, with upright branches forming a narrow crown.

Leaves.—Alternate, simple, 3-5 inches long, oblong-lanceolate, pointed, finely and sharply serrate, glabrous, thin, bright green above, paler beneath.

Flowers.—May, with the leaves; perfect; about ½ inch wide, white on slender pedicels in 4-5-flowered umbels.

Fruit.—Ripens in July and persists until autumn; a globular drupe, about ¼ inch in diameter, bright red, thick-skinned, sour.

Bark.—Smooth, or somewhat roughened by loose, papery plates, reddish brown.

Wood.—Light, soft, close-grained, light brown with thin yellowish sapwood.

Range.—Labrador to British Columbia and southward to North Carolina and Colorado.

Distribution in West Virginia.—Common in West Virginia along the mountains, especially in areas from which other timber has been destroyed by fire.

Habitat.—Sandy soils of burned-over mountain-sides and flats, and along streams at lower elevations.

Notes.—Fire Cherry and Bird Cherry are two common names of this tree, the first denoting its habitat and the second the attractiveness of its fruit to birds. This species performs its principal service in covering otherwise bare, fire-burned areas to which the seeds have been carried and dropped by birds.