fire cherry (Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Trees & Shrubs)

fire cherry

Prunus pensylvanica

Summary ⁶

Prunus pensylvanica, also known as bird cherry,fire cherry,pin cherry, and red cherry, is a North American cherry species in the genus Prunus.

Taxon biology ⁷

Rosaceae -- Rose family

G. W. Wendel

Pin cherry (Prunus pensylvanica) isa small common tree inhabiting a great variety of lands in the northern part of the United States and Canada. It is sometimes called fire cherry for its value as a reforesting agent after forest fires. It forms pure stands that provide shade for seedlings of slower growing species, then dies off, making way for the new trees. Another common name, bird cherry, reflects the prevalent use of the fruit by birds as food. It is also called northern pin cherry, wild red cherry, and pigeon cherry. The soft porous wood is of little commercial value.

Sources and Credits

(c) Dan Mullen, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/8583446@N05/6927689396/
(c) 2014 California Academy of Sciences, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=604055&one=T
(c) Charlie Hohn, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Charlie Hohn
(c) Owen Clarkin, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Owen Clarkin
(c) Erika Mitchell, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Erika Mitchell
(c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_pensylvanica
(c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/22779089

More Info

Range Map

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