Rum Cherry (Gorham 11 (Site 1))

Rum Cherry

Prunus serotina

Summary ⁷

Prunus serotina, commonly called black cherry, wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a woody plant species belonging to the genus Prunus. This cherry is native to eastern North America: from eastern Canada through southern Quebec and Ontario; south through the eastern United States to Texas and central Florida; with disjunct populations in Arizona and New Mexico; and in the mountains of Mexico and Guatemala.

Description ⁸

General: Rose Family (Rosaceae). Native trees are 38 m tall; bark of larger trunks fissured and scaly, but thin. Leaves: alternate, simple, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 5-15 cm long, 2.5-5 cm wide, with finely toothed margins, glabrous or commonly with reddish hairs along the midrib beneath, near the base. Inflorescence is an oblong-cylindric raceme that is 10-15 cm long at the end of leafy twigs of the season, with numerous flowers; calyx tube of short lobes, petals 5, white. Fruits: berry-like, about 8-10 mm in diameter, obovoid, black when ripe; seed a single, black, ovoid stone 6-8 mm long. The common name is from the black color of the ripe fruits.

Variation within the species: The species has a number of geographic variants:

Var. eximia (Small) Little - Edwards Plateau of central TX

Var. rufula (Woot. & Standl.) McVaugh - TX, NM, AZ

Var. serotina - widespread in the eastern US

Var. virens (Woot. & Standl.) McVaugh - TX, NM, AZ

Var. salicifolia Koehne - Mexico and Guatemala

Var. serotina may reach 38 meters tall in the eastern US, but southwestern US varieties typically are smaller; southwestern black cherry (var. rufula) seldom grows taller than 9 m, and escarpment black cherry (var. exima) no taller than 15 meters. The leaves of var. serotina are thin compared to those of the other varieties. Domesticants and wild populations of P. serotina in Mexico and Central America, called "capulin" (var. salicifolia), have larger (2 cm) fruits, apparently through selection by native peoples. Plants previously recognized as P. serotina var. alabamensis (Mohr) Little have been taxonomically returned to species rank, as P. alabamensis Mohr.

Distribution ⁹

Black cherry grows in eastern North America from western Minnesota south
to eastern Texas, and eastward to the Atlantic from central Florida to
Nova Scotia [34]. Outlying populations grow in central Texas; in the
mountains of western Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; and south in Mexico
to Guatemala [34]. The varieties are distributed as follows [34]:

typical black cherry (var. serotina) - from Nova Scotia west to
central Minnesota, south to east Texas, and east to central Florida.

Alabama black cherry (var. alabamensis) - from eastern Georgia west to
northeastern Alabama, and south to northwestern Florida. Also local
in South Carolina and North Carolina.

escarpment cherry (var. exima) - found in the Edwards Plateau region
of central Texas.

southwestern black cherry (var. rufula) - in the mountains from
western Texas to central Arizona, and south to northern and central
Mexico.

Key plant community associations ¹⁰

More info for the terms: codominant, cover

Black cherry occurs as scattered individuals in numerous forest types of
the East (see SAF cover types listed). It is codominant in only one
cover type, the black cherry-maple type (SAF 28) found in the Allegheny
Plateau and Allegheny Mountain sections of New York, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and West Virginia [18]. In this type, black cherry is a
primary component along with red maple (Acer rubrum), sugar maple (A.
saccharum), and white ash (Fraxinus americana). Other common associates
include American beech (Fagus grandifolia), eastern hemlock (Tsuga
canadensis), sweet birch (Betula lenta), yellow birch (B.
alleghaniensis), yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), cucumbertree
(Magnolia acuminata), oak (Quercus spp.), and hickory (Carya spp.)
[1,5,29,41].

Regeneration processes ¹¹

More info for the terms: frequency, litter, natural, tree

Seed production: In natural stands maximum seed production occurs on
30- to 100-year-old trees. Some seed is produced almost every year,
with good crops produced at 1- to 5-year intervals [39]. In
Pennsylvania, large seed crops occur about every other year [8]. There
are about 4,800 cleaned seeds per pound (10,560/kg) [39].

Dispersal: Seeds are dispersed by gravity, birds, and mammals. The
fruits fall shortly after ripening in late summer or fall. Seeds not
dispersed by animals generally land near the parent tree. Thus the
abundance of seedlings in the understory is related to the number and
distribution of seed trees in the overstory. Because of animal
dispersal, however, black cherry seedlings are often abundant in stands
with no or few seed-producing black cherry trees [1,15,29,41,51].
Germination tests show that black cherry seeds that pass through the
digestive tracts of passerine birds successfully germinate after proper
cold stratification, and have higher germination rates than undigested
seeds [30,51].

Seed quality: Usually over 90 percent of seeds are sound [8,59].

Dormancy and germination: Black cherry seeds require cold
stratification to germinate. This occurs as seeds overwinter on the
forest floor [39]. Black cherry exhibits delayed germination: seeds
from one crop germinate over a period of 3 years. Of seed artificially
sown and buried 1 inch below the soil surface in a northern hardwood
stand in Pennsylvania, 22, 42, and 4 percent germinated the first,
second, and third year, respectively [36]. In another germination
study, 10, 50, and 25 percent germinated 1, 2, and 3 years after burial,
respectively [62]. Delayed germination allows black cherry to bank
large amounts of seed in the forest floor. There are typically hundreds
of thousands of black cherry seeds stored in the soil of black
cherry-maple stands in Pennsylvania in any given year [36]. Each spring
about one-half of these germinate.

Black cherry's moisture and light requirements for germination are not
as exacting as those of its associates [44]. However, moist seedbeds
ensure good germination. Seeds germinate in loose soil and forest
litter, but germination is somewhat higher in litter than mineral soil
[39,44].

Seedling growth and survival: Seedlings typically grow to a height of 2
to 4 inches (5-10 cm) 30 days after germination. In dense shade, they
grow very slowly, sometimes reaching 6 inches (15 cm) in height in 3 or
4 years, but die thereafter unless released [39]. An understory of tiny
black cherry seedlings is common in numerous mixed deciduous forests.
If the canopy is opened due to windthrow, harvest, or other disturbance,
the seedlings survive well and grow rapidly in full sunlight [39].

Vegetative reproduction: Black cherry sprouts vigorously from the stump
following cutting or fire [32,55]. Sprouting frequency of stumps
remains high, probably over 90 percent, for trees up to about 60 years
of age [32].