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[Bevanron <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Hi Jerry,
I don't know about it all being the same tree/plant.  There are
definitely different species, however, when it comes to medicinal uses,
one may be identical to another in its chemical nature.  I have several
tree id books, as well as herbalistic and survival books and the plates
in those books definitely show a distinction between black cherries or
rum cherries, pin cherries or fire cherries, and chokecherries.  All of
the above are considered "Wild Cherries".  In fact, as for tree
identification, before this morning I couldn't remember which garden
tree was a Black Tartarian and which was a Montmorency.  I was able to
count the paired veins on the leaves and determine which tree was which.
 The sweet cherry, prunus avium 'Black Tartarian', has 12 paired veins,
while the sour cherry, prunus cerasus 'Montmorency', has only 8. :)
No doubt, the cherry is a useful tree, regardless of species,and the
bark has excellent medicinal qualities-(recalling that Lewis and Clark
used cherry bark to bring down fevers) AND cherries, like blueberries
and cranberries, are full of anti-oxidants.  I don't think we can have
enough of them, which is why I planted 2 hedges of bush cherries
(Hansen's bush cherries, prunus besseyi) this year!

Bev

Jerry W. Shepperd wrote:

> Bev,
>
> Apparently, they are all of the same family, maybe the same plant. 
> Here is a web-page from Herbal Extracts Plus, which is a commercial 
> site.
>
> Jerry Shepperd


--
erthnsky AT bellsouth.net  BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm      NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W