Pin Cherry - Prunus pensylvanica

Rosaceae - Rose Family
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 81
Pin Cherry Tree
Prunus pensylvanica

Drawing  by Brooke Priddy Conrad on Sept. 23rd in honor of my grandson, Wyatt.

Spring

By Superior National Forest (Prunus pennsylvanica 2  Uploaded by AlbertHerring) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

This beautiful tree grows at the higher elevations of the southern Appalachians as well as in the northern part of the United States and Canada.  It is sometimes called Fire cherry for its ability to grow after forest fires. Many little Pin Cherrys will grow in an area that has had a fire, providing shade for seedlings of slower growing trees then it will only live 30 - 40 years.  When the end of its life is here, room is left for the new slower growing, bigger trees.

Summer

The Pin Cherry Tree - Prunus pensylvanica

The Pin Cherry Tree

The Pin Cherry tree has narrow toothed oblong green leaves with two distinctive bumps near the base of the leaf stem.  This tree has small round fruits that turn from green to red in the late summer.

Fall 

Pin Cherry Tree on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Pin Cherry Tree on the Blue Ridge Parkway

In September, the Pin Cherry trees are changing leaf color. The red berries have been mostly eaten by the birds and squirrels. Some of the leaves have already fallen. The colors of the leaves that remain on the trees are breathtaking against the blue fall sky.

Winter

The Pin Cherry tree on the Blue Ridge Parkway

The Pin Cherry tree lives up high at over 5,000 feet in elevation.  I drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway to what I call the top of the world to find this tree.  This Pin Cherry lives near Richland Balsam overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway at over 6,000 feet above sea level.
There are also quite a few between graveyard fields and Black Balsam Knob Road.  The white flower blossoms are so beautiful as well as the fruit, the little red drupes that are on the trees in September.

The Champion Pin Cherry Trees

The Pin cherry tree is also called Fire Cherry for it is one of the first trees to grow back in the forests after a fire.  It Grows as a small tree, the Pin cherry usually has a straight trunk and a narrow, round-topped crown. It grows 15-50 ft. tall and 4-20 inches in diameter. Trees up to 100 ft tall have been found growing in the southern Appalachians, with the largest found on the western slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains.

The Pin cherry is rather short lived, having a lifespan of only 20-40 years following a rapid maturation.

The North Carolina Champion Pin Cherry tree lives in Transylvania County.  It is 54 feet high and has a circumference of 51 inches.
http://ncforestservice.gov/urban/tree_detail.asp?Tree_ID=502

The American forest Champion Pin Cherry tree lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  It is 80 feet high and has a circumference of 61".
http://www.americanforests.org/big-trees/pin-cherry-prunus-pensylvanica-3/

My favorite Pin Cherry Tree

My favorite Pin Cherry trees live on the Blue Ridge Parkway just past Graveyard Fields on the way to Black Balsam Knob Road.

Plant a Pin Cherry Tree

The Pin cherry serves as food for a large number of moths and butterflies. It also feeds birds on its beautiful red berries during the winter months. There is a beautiful video on the web I watched by John Heider of a Robin eating the berries. Go find it and enjoy.

A second common name for the Pin Cherry beside fire cherry is bird cherry because so many birds eat the fruit.

"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit." Nelson Henderson.

For the love of the trees,
Becky