we need pix of this trees leaves ...

insert second or third pic.. in new replies ..

ken

An ash has a compound leaf with leaflets. The leaves are arranged opposite one another on the branch.

A cherry has a simple (single) leaf with toothed margins. The leaves are arranged alternately along the branch.

Just by looking at the bark it looks like the cherry trees I have at our farm. Pictures of the leaves could confirm it though.

Here is a photo of the leaves thanks :)

Definitely a cherry; likely Black Cherry Prunus serotina.

Resin

Okay awesome !! I was really really hoping it was a Cherry ! Now , if it will fruit...

Not that kind of cherry. It's the cherry that they make furniture out of. In the south black cherry is very short live and will die within 10 years or less.

the fruit are about as big as a pencil eraser .. bitter as God knows what.. have little of no usable meat on the fruit.. as the pit is micrometers smaller that the eraser ..

and distributed by the millions by bird poop ...

of no use as a fruit tree .. imho ...though i suppose if you collected a couple billion.. and added 50 pounds of sugar.. you could make something edible out of them ...

or some kind of ink or coloring with the deep red color ...

as above.. i refer to the as the furniture cherry ...

a fresh cut branch.. in the right season.. will have a slight fragrance of red pop.. for a second or two.. after bruising the bark... and i mean ephemeral ... either that.. or someone once said that.. and its all in my imagination ...

ken

In the south black cherry is very short live and will die within 10 years or less.

What?! Prunus serotina, wild black cherry, does live longer than 10 years and can become a good sized tree. I have some of them.

"red pop"......lol!

Esh, are you in the mountainous area of N.GA? That throws everything off a zone or two.

+oM

I have these trees all over my lawn !! It is hard to keep them down !

No, wild cherries are long lived here. The cultivated species and cultivars are short lived though.

I am about 30 miles north of Atlanta, not considered the North Georgia mountains (unless I'm trying to sell my house ...).

Per a very reputable local resource. "Though Black Cherry can become a fairly large tree in the Appalachian Mountains, in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain it is very susceptible to disease and tends to be small and short-lived."

I've never seen anyone log a black cherry in Raleigh. You can take that to the bank. The money bank...

Here is a link that might be useful: Black cherries in nc mtns pied cp

au contraire jqpublic. While perhaps not "logging" in the strictest sense, I just finished building a dresser with wood I milled from a fallen wild cherry in my yard. It is beautiful wood. I'm here in Raleigh; which bank would you like to meet at??? :)

Ken, my experience is that, at least for a small black cherry on my lot, if you wait until they're a bit overripe (wrinkled), the black cherries not only lose most or all bitterness, but are even sweetish w/the characteristic strong flavor. Below are some:

Your reputable local source is wrong. There are many, many large 50 + year old wild cherries in the lower coastal plain. They don't get as big as the southern Appalachian Mtns., but that is more due to better soils.

Wow, my post from two years ago still left fresh wounds. I'd love to see pics of mature 30+ year old black cherries in the south.

Hey, JQ -- I'm 76 years old and there's a living black cherry tree still standing in the back yard of the house I grew up in. That tree was at least five or six feet tall when i was 10 years old, so from germination it has to be AT LEAST 70 years old. And if you will do a little research, you will see that 70 is not all that old for a black cherry. That particular tree is diseased now, due to severe damage suffered during a windstorm several (10? 15?) years ago, but it is far from dead. And until the damage occurred, it was still very healthy. My location is north central Mississippi, where timber and logging are huge industries. I can assure you that black cherry trees reaching 50 to 80 feet tall -- and FAR, FAR in excess of 10 years old -- are extremely common in this area.

Maybe you are confusing the ornamental cherry (average lifespan 15-20 years) or the chokecherry (average lifespan 40 years) with the wild black cherry.