Plant · P-391

Black Cherry

Prunus serotina

Black Cherry is one of the most valuable native cherries for timber - the wood is straight-grained, strong and shock resistant, and it is worked into furniture and cabinetry once the tree has decades on it. Its dark fruit is bitter fresh but turns good once cooked into pies, jellies and stews, and the bark extract is what actually flavours a lot of commercial soft drinks, sweets and syrups. Very little goes to waste on this tree - its fruit alone feeds dozens of bird species and many mammals, and it hosts the larvae of tiger swallowtail, viceroy and several silkmoths. Nearly every part except the ripe fruit is toxic, and wilted leaves release cyanide as they die, so prunings and storm-broken limbs need to be kept well away from grazing stock.