Identifying Characteristics
| Size/Form: | The black cherry is a medium-sized tree, 50 to 60 feet in height, 2 to 3 feet in diameter. It has small, somewhat horizontal branches and a narrow, oblong crown. The root system is wide-spreading. |
| Leaves: | Leaves are simple, alternate, and deciduous. The leaves are 2 to 6 inches long, 1 to 2 inches wide, oval to elliptical in shape. The leaf base is acute and the leaf tip is acuminate. Leaf margins are finely serrate. Leaf surfaces are lustrous dark green above, paler below with rusty-red pubescent on the bottom third of the midrib. Petioles are slender, up to 1 inch long, grooved, and sometimes twisted.. |
| Twigs: | The twigs are slender, rigid, aromatic, at first coated with a waxy layer, becoming red-brown and glabrous. The pith is homogeneous. |
| Bark: | The bark can be seen in three different forms as trees mature. When young, the bark is thin, smooth, red-brown or black, and has elongated silvery horizontal slits (lenticels). As it ages, the bark becomes furrowed and the slits remain visible. On mature trees the bark is black, thick, and roughly furrowed like alligator skin. |
| Flowers: | The five-petaled white flowers are perfect, in many-flowered clusters of around 40 on each raceme. |
| Fruit: | Fruit is a lustrous, black or purplish-black, edible drupe, with juicy, purplish flesh, ½ inch in diameter. The pit is 1/3 inch long with a prominent ridge. |
Similar Trees on the Florida 4-H Forest Ecology Contest List:
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