Plant · P-1145

Escarpment Cherry

Prunus serotina

Escarpment cherry is the Texas Hill Country form of black cherry, a smaller limestone-loving tree whose small dark fruit is edible once ripe and pitted - eaten raw, cooked into jelly and pie, or fermented into wine - while the wood is a rich reddish-brown cabinet timber. Every other part of the tree, leaves, bark, twigs and seed kernels, contains cyanide-producing compounds strong enough to harm livestock that browse wilted or frosted foliage. Birds spread the seed widely and a crop germinates over several years, building a seed bank that can sit suppressed in shade for decades before a gap in the canopy lets it flush into a thicket. It needs sun to grow past seedling size and struggles on heavy clay, but tolerates alkaline, lime-rich soil better than the wider-ranging eastern form of the species.