Wild Cherry Bark and Wild Cherry Bark Extract.

Article Content:

Plant Description and Part Introduction.

Wild Cherry Bark Extract.Wild Cherry Extract INCI Name Prunus Serotina Bark Extract CAS 84604-07-9 Prunus Serotina Extract 84604-07-9.EINECS ELINCS No 283-284-0 Prunus serotina Ehrh black cherry bark Old Indian Wild Cherry Bark photo picture image Prunus, the Wild Cherry, is a large tree, 50-80 feet tall, and 2-4 feet in diameter. It is widely distributed in woods throughout North America, especially in the Northern and Central states. Wild Cherry grows from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick west to Southern Quebec and Ontario into Michigan and eastern Minnesota; south to Iowa, extreme eastern Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas, then east to central Florida.The bark is rough and black on older trunks, and separates naturally from the tree trunk. The bark that is used medicinally is younger, smooth, glossy and reddish brown. The fruit is a nearly spherical, purple-black drupe, around 1.5cm in diameter, ripening in late summer and autumn. Wild Cherry produces deciduous, alternate, oblong or ovate leaves with serrated margins. The upper surface of the leaves is glossy and somewhat thick. The Wild Cherry blossoms in May with white flowers in erect terminal racemes; an occasional solitary flower will bloom in the axils of the leaves. Around
Wild Cherry Bark Extract.Wild Cherry Extract INCI Name Prunus Serotina Bark Extract CAS 84604-07-9 Prunus Serotina Extract 84604-07-9.EINECS ELINCS No 283-284-0 Prunus serotina Ehrh black cherry bark Old Indian Wild Cherry Bark photo picture image

Plant Part Introduction:

Leaf: Alternate, simple, 2 to 5 inches long, oblong to lance-shaped, finely serrated, very small inconspicuous glands on petiole, dark green and lustrous above, paler below; usually with a dense yellowish-brown, sometimes white pubescence along mid-rib.

Flower: Small white flowers in hanging, narrow clusters 4 to 6 inches long, appearing in late spring.
Wild Cherry Bark Extract.Wild Cherry Extract INCI Name Prunus Serotina Bark Extract CAS 84604-07-9 Prunus Serotina Extract 84604-07-9.EINECS ELINCS No 283-284-0 Prunus serotina Ehrh black cherry bark Old Indian Wild Cherry Bark photo picture image

Fruit: Dark purple round drupe, almost black when ripe, 1/3 inch in diameter with a bitter-sweet taste; matures in late summer.

Twig: Slender, reddish brown, sometimes covered in gray epidermis, pronounced bitter almond odor and taste; buds are very small (1/5 inch),covered in several glossy, reddish brown to greenish scales. Leaf scars are small and semicircular with 3 bundle scars.

Bark: Smooth with numerous short, narrow, horizontal lenticels when young; becomes very dark (nearly black), breaking up into small, rough, irregular, upturned plates (burnt corn flakes), when older.

Form: Medium sized tree which (on good sites) develops a long, straight, clear bole and can reach heights approaching 100 feet.

Black Cherry is a common, weedy, early-successional tree. The leaves release the distinctive cherry-like aroma of cyanide when crushed. Healthy leaves contain prunasin, which is converted to hydrogen cyanide (HCN) when the leaves are crushed. This highly toxic substance acts as a defense mechanism against herbivores.

Black Cherry produces masses of white flowers in spring, followed by copious amounts of small cherries in early summer, which are quickly eaten and spread by birds. The specific epithet serotina means "late" - it flowers later that other native cherries. The cherries are small, black when ripe, and relatively taseless, neither sweet nor sour.The bark is smooth when young, with horizontally elongated lenticels.

Flowering and Fruiting:Unlike domestic cherries, which flower before the leaves appear, black cherry flowers late in relation to leaf development. At the latitude of 41 to 42 N. in Pennsylvania and New York, black cherry flowers usually appear around May 15 to May 20. At that time, the leaves are nearly full-grown though still reddish in color. Flower development in other parts of the range varies with climate-from the end of March.

Black cherry flowers are white, solitary, and borne in umbel-like racemes. The flowers are perfect and are insect pollinated. Several species of flies, a flower beetle, and several species of bees, including the honey bee, work the blossoms for pollen and nectar. Self-pollination has been observed, but none of the self-pollinated flowers developed into viable seeds.

Late spring frosts may damage the flowers before they open, and frosts occasionally cause large numbers of newly set fruits to fall from the pedicels without maturing. Premature dropping of green fruits is also a problem in some years. The fruit is a one-seeded drupe about 10 min (0.38 in) in diameter with a bony stone or pit. The fruit is black when ripe.
Wild Cherry Bark Extract.Wild Cherry Extract INCI Name Prunus Serotina Bark Extract CAS 84604-07-9 Prunus Serotina Extract 84604-07-9.EINECS ELINCS No 283-284-0 Prunus serotina Ehrh black cherry bark Old Indian Wild Cherry Bark photo picture image

Culture of Cherry Tree:

Black cherry grows fast and is quite long lived. In spring, black cherry trees are often disfigured by tent caterpillars, but these usually do no long term harm, and are themselves eaten by yellow-billed cuckoos, great crested flycatchers and other native songbirds.

Light: Foresters classify black cherry as an "intolerant" species, meaning it cannot survive in shade. Black cherry seedlings require a gap in the forest, and grow best in full sun.

Moisture: Black cherries thrive with annual rainfalls of 20-80 in (50.8-200.3 cm)

Propagation: Black cherry seeds require 3-4 months of chilling before they will germinate. Selections are propagated from soft wood cuttings in spring. Seed - requires 2 - 3 months cold stratification and is best sown in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe. Sow stored seed in a cold frame as early in the year as possible. Protect the seed from mice etc. The seed can be rather slow, sometimes taking 18 months to germinate. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle. Grow them on in a greenhouse or cold frame for their first winter and plant them out in late spring or early summer of the following year. Cuttings of half-ripe wood with a heel, July/August in a frame. Softwood cuttings from strongly growing plants in spring to early summer in a frame. Division of suckers in the dormant season. They can be planted out direct into their permanent positions. Layering in spring.