Photo: Rasbak — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Survives zone 3 through 7
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
The small black cherries are very bitter and astringent raw, but are traditionally cooked into jams, syrups, and flavored spirits once sweetened. ⚠ Kernels/pits cyanogenic.
Spread warning. Naturalized and invasive in parts of Alaska, where it displaces native vegetation and is the target of active eradication efforts.
- Hardiness
- Zone 3–7
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Summer–autumn
- Mature size
- Tree 8–16 m
- Light
- Full sun to partial
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)
- Environment
- Temperate
- Native range
- The widest native range of any Prunus species — spanning Europe and northern Asia east to Korea and Japan
- Status
- Ornamental
- Years to fruit
- 2–4 yrs
- Growth speed
- About 30 cm/year on average, occasionally exceeding 1 m/year in good conditions
- Spacing
- 700 cm (276 in) apart — about 49 m² (527 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Oblong to oval, 6–12 cm long, dark green with an irregularly serrated margin.
- Root system
- Worth knowing that in cultivation this is usually the rootstock's root system, not the species' — most Prunus are sold grafted, and vigour, suckering and soil tolerance follow the stock rather than the top. On its own roots the species is shallow-rooted, with the bulk in the top 40–60 cm spreading well beyond the canopy, so it dislikes cultivation underneath and competes badly with grass.
- Fruit description
- Small (about 8 mm), glossy black cherries borne in drooping racemes, with bitter, astringent flesh around a single small stone.
- Propagation
- By seed, which needs cold stratification and is best sown fresh in autumn; cultivars are typically grafted or budded, and root suckers can also be lifted and transplanted.
- Pollination
- Hermaphrodite, insect-pollinated flowers — self-fertility isn't specifically documented for this species
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
Fertilizing. Tolerates a wide range of soils from sandy to clay and prefers consistently moist ground; little supplemental feeding is needed in reasonable soil.
How it spreads. Suckers and self-seeds readily, forming thickets in moist woods, hedgerows, and streambanks.
Growing tips. Fast-growing; avoid regular hedge-trimming since fresh wounds invite silver leaf disease — any necessary pruning should be done in summer when cuts heal quickly. A known host of black knot fungus.
Companion planting. Shares black knot fungus (Apiosporina morbosa) with other wild and cultivated Prunus growing nearby, and is reported to be more aggressively affected by the disease than American chokecherry (P. virginiana).
Grow journal
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