364 TREES IN- WINTER 



CHOKE CHERRY 



Prunus virginiana L. 



Padus virginiana (L.) Roemer. 



HABIT — Generally a tall shrub or a small tree rarely reaching 20-30 

 ft. in height with a trunk diameter of 6-8 inches. 



BARK — Dull grayish-brown, smoothish but slightly roughened with 

 raised buff-orange rounded dots formed by the enlarged lenticels, not 

 becoming rough-scaly with age; on young trunks and branches easily 

 peeled off in thin, dark papery layers exposing the bright green bark 

 below, 



TlrVIGS — Slender to rather stout, averaging stouter than those of the 

 Wild Black Cherry, smooth, reddish to grayish-brown, without grayish 

 skin easily rubbed off, crushed twigs with a rank odor and taste in 

 addition to that of bitter almonds. LENTICELS — numerous, rather con- 

 spicuous, buff-orange dots, slightly elongated longitudinally the first 

 year and not becoming distinctly elongated horizontally on later 

 growth. PITH — of recent growth white. 



LEAF-SCARS — Alternate, more than 2-ranked, elliptical, raised. 

 STIPULE-SCARS — inconspicuous or absent. BUNDLE-SCARS — 3, fre- 

 quently sunken. 



BUDS — Rather large, narrow, ovate to conical, about 6 mm. or more 

 long, smooth, pale brown, sharp-pointed, generally divergent with more 

 or less strongly curved apex; terminal bud frequently slightly smaller 

 than lateral buds. BUD-SCALES — a half dozen or more scales visible, 

 broadly ovate, more or less rounded and keeled on the back with thin 

 grayish-margins. 



FRUIT— A drupe about the size of a pea, ripening in summer in droop- 

 ing elongated clusters. 



COMPARISONS — The Choke Cherry may be distinguished from the 

 Wild Black Cherry with which it is frequently confused by its smaller 

 size, smoothish bark even in old age, its buff colored lenticels which 

 do not elongate horizontally, the rank odor of its twigs and by its 

 larger and paler buds with whitsh-margined bud-scales. From the 

 cultivated Sweet and Sour Cherries the Choke Cherry is distinguished 

 by the absence of short fruit spurs and by its gray-margined bud-scales. 

 The lower twig in the plate is infected by a fungus disease — Black Knot 

 (Plowrightia morbosaj — which occurs less abundantly upon the Wild 

 Black and Wild Red Cherries and also upon our cultivated Cherries as 

 well as upon the Plums. 



DISTRIBUTION — In varying soils; along river banks, on dry plains, in 

 woods, common along walls and often in thickets. Prom Newfoundland 

 across the continent, as far north on the Mackenzie river as 62 degrees; 

 south to Georgia; west to Minnesota and Texas. 



IN NEW ENGLAND — Common throughout; at an altitude of 4,500 feet 

 upon Mt. Katahdin. In Connecticut, rare near the coast in the south- 

 eastern part of the state but frequent or common elsewhere. 



WOOD — Hard, close-grained, weak, light brown; of insufficient size 

 to be of value commercially. 



