Red Cherry Pin Cherry Pigeon Cherry Bird Cherry

=Habitat and Range.=--Roadsides, clearings, burnt lands, hill slopes,

occasional in rather low grounds.



From Labrador to the Rocky mountains, through British Columbia to

the Coast Range.



Throughout New England; very common in the northern portions, as high up

as 4500 feet upon Katahdin, less common southward and near the seacoast.



South to North Carolina; west to Minnesota and Missouri.



=Habit=.--A slender tree, seldom more than 30 feet high; trunk 8-10

inches in diameter, erect; branches at an angle of 45 deg. or less; head

rather open, roundish or oblong, characterized in spring by clusters of

long-stemmed white flowers, and in autumn by a profusion of small red

fruit.



=Bark.=--Bark of trunk in fully grown trees dark brownish-red,

conspicuously marked with coarse horizontal lines; the outer layer

peeling off in fine scales, disclosing a brighter red layer beneath; in

young trees very smooth and shining throughout; lines very conspicuous

in the larger branches; branchlets brownish-red with small horizontal

lines; spray and season's shoots polished red, with minute orange dots.



=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, broad-conical, acute. Leaves

numerous, 3-4 inches long, 1-2 inches wide, light green and shining on

both sides, ovate-lanceolate, oval or oblong-lanceolate, finely

serrate; teeth sharp-pointed, sometimes incurved; apex acuminate; base

obtuse or roundish; midrib depressed above; leafstalks short, channeled;

stipules falling early.



=Inflorescence.=--June. Appearing with the leaves, in lateral clusters,

the flowers on long, slender, somewhat branching stems; calyx 5-cleft;

segments thin, reflexed; petals 5, white, obovate, short-clawed; stamens

numerous; pistil 1; style 1.



=Fruit.=--About the size of a pea, round, light red, thin-meated and

sour: stone oval or ovate.



=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; prefers a light

gravelly loam, but grows in poor soils and exposed situations; habit so

uncertain and tendency to sprout so decided that it is not wise to use

it in ornamental plantations; sometimes very useful in sterile land. A

variety with transparent yellowish fruit is occasionally met with, but

is not yet in cultivation.






1. Winter buds.

2. Flowering branch.

3. Flower with part of perianth and stamens removed.

4. Petal.

5. Fruiting branch.





=Prunus Virginiana, L.=