LEAVES: Alternate, simple, 2″-4″ long, tapering or rounded at the base, abruptly pointed tips and sharply serrate margins, bright green above, paler beneath.
TWIGS: Stout, smooth, light brown to reddish brown, with numerous yellowish lenticels. Unlike Fire cherry, the lenticels are not evidently horizontally elongated. Bruised twigs have a disagreeable odor.
FRUIT: A juicy, dark red to black drupe, about ½” in diameter, in open, elongated, drooping clusters. The flavor is harsh and astringent.
BARK: Young trunks shiny, smooth, brownish, peeling off in thin film-like layers exposing the green inner bark. Older trunks dark gray, roughened by shallow fissures.
GENERAL: A fast-growing but short-lived shrub or small tree, rarely exceeding 25′. Found in a variety of open habitats, thickets, roadsides and upland woods throughout the Commonwealth, but more abundant in the western counties. One of the first species to revegetate cleared areas, it is attractive in spring flower and provides food to several dozen species of birds and mammals.
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