Bitter Cherry

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Bitter Cherry

Prunus emarginata pits

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Rosaceae
Genus:	Prunus
Subgenus:	Cerasus
Species:	P. emarginata

Binomial name

Prunus emarginata
(Dougl. ex Hook.) D. Dietr.

The Bitter Cherry (Prunus emarginata) is a shrub or small tree that can grow to about nine feet tall. It is often found in recently disturbed areas, open woods, and nutrient-filled soil.

The Bitter Cherry's leaves are thin, oval-shaped, and yellowish-green with unevenly-sized teeth on either side. They range from two to eight centimeters long, and have orange lenticels that taste bitter. The tree has a slender oval trunk with smooth bark that is normally grayish or reddish in color. In the spring it produces small, white clusters of almond-scented flowers with numerous, hairlike stamens. The tree bears juicy red or purple cherries, which, as the plant's name suggests, are bitter. The cherries are not very palatable and have been known to cause illness in humans, but animals, especially birds, forage on them. Native tribes, most notably Kwakwaka'wakw, used other parts of the plant for medicinal purposes, such as poultices and bark infusions.

The Bitter Cherry is a monoecious plant, meaning that one tree contains both male and female flowers. While it could be passively self-pollinated to some degree (i.e. by the wind), for the most part it relies on insects to pollinate its flowers. The shrub also sends out underground stems which then sprout above the surface to create a thicket.