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["tanis cuff" <tanistanis@hotmail.com>]

I've never eaten enough fruits to notice any ill effect, and I like them a 
lot.  The wilted leaves/ cattle info, is that just chokecherry, or all 
Prunus?


----Original Message Follows----
From: william anderson <>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Black Cherry
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 17:57:33 -0700 (PDT)

I had understood years ago that the fruits of the Wild Black Cherry could be 
poisonous if ingested in quantity. I don't remember any details but I think 
they damaged the kidneys. Aren't the wilted leaves fatal to browsing cattle?

Charles Paradise <machelp@attglobal.net> wrote:Prunus Serotina - the native 
american big cherry tree - the same used to make cherry furniture - is a 
flavor rarely tasted even by fruit fanciers. The closest would be Luden's 
Wild cherry flavored cough drops. A rare special experience to taste. This 
tree like any others is subject to variation throughout its vast range, and 
better and worse areas of local trees are found. There are a few good ones 
to be encountered, but few and far between. I've got a good one grafted, but 
the berries are small. Who knows what prevents these powerful, young-bearing 
trees from fulfilling their fruiting potential, birds are part of the reason 
but other reasons could exist, who knows what it is.
Charlie Paradise Massachusetts

Jim Fruth wrote:

> A pain in the butt to pick the fruit. I run into them while picking
> choke cherries. Both have clusters of fruit not unlike grapes. Choke
> cherries ripen the whole cluster at the same time. Black cherries ripen 
one
> cherry at a time with the whole cluster ripening over a couple of weeks 
with
> never more than one or two ripe berries to be found within the cluster -
> berries fall off soon after ripening if the birds don't get them first.
>