Scientific Name
Prunus serotina
The black cherry tree is native to the eastern states of the U.S., with a wide distribution from New Mexico and south as far as Guatemala. It is a fast-growing and rather long-lived tree that’s far larger than other cherry trees, plums and similar “stone fruit” trees in the Prunus genus. The young specimen near Claver Hall was just planted from the Regis tree nursery in the summer of 2025.
Black cherry has a moderately attractive spring display of white blossoms in elongated hanging clusters. The black cherry fruit, around a third of an inch in diameter, develops from these clusters and is initially green, later turning red and finally a dark purple when ripe at the end of summer. The ripe fruit is only marginally palatable to humans but is utilized in concentrated form as a flavoring. Birds are avid consumers of the ripe fruit and pass the hard seeds through their gut wherever they fly. This makes this tree one of the first to colonize areas that have temporarily lost their vegetation (possibly including people’s garden beds), but so far, we haven’t found it to be invasive in Colorado.
In the fall, the black cherry’s foliage may be vividly colored, but not reliably so every year. The bark of mature trees is dark gray, typically broken into irregular patches. Black cherry wood ranks with black walnut among North American native trees for its high quality for use in furniture and cabinetry. As the tree matures, it can reach a height of 45 feet and often assumes a rather narrow form. The tallest in Colorado is 69 feet tall.