Identifying Possible Choke Cherry

I'm hoping that these pictures (attached) are a choke cherry, or something similar, that I can graft to.  Just realized these plants are coming up all over my back yard.  Some are large (inadvertently) coppiced bushes 10 ft tall, but most are a foot tall or less.  Any help identifying them would be very helpful.  I think they are some kind of cherry?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_virginiana

Prunus looks right

Seritana or americana also options.

They beat it comes up in clumps makes me think americana. Plum!

Thanks!  Yeah it is clumping a lot.  I guess I can graft plum cultivars to it?  I'm pretty excited - I may have over 50 of these coming up all over a half acre or so!

Usually you can slice a little bark down to the sap wood and smell cherry. Its strong.

If there's any "poop on a stick" fungus growing on it, that's a sure sign it's a cherry of some sort.

Josh Garbo wrote:Thanks!  Yeah it is clumping a lot.  I guess I can graft plum cultivars to it?  I'm pretty excited - I may have over 50 of these coming up all over a half acre or so!

No need. Americana is good eats. But you could graft something bigger I suppose.

There are smart phone apps that let you upload a pic to positively identify. But flowering or fruiting would likely give you enough info to narrow it down.

Black cherry has a very rich dark smell, crumbling a sniffing a leaf could be a strong tell.

Yes, those look exactly like some I've seem growing in Aspen. The wife loves their fragrance!

The leaf is the right shape and has the right edges on the plus side.  On the minus side choke cherries in this area on small branches have a reddish brown bark and not the grayish silver showing in your pictures.  I am going to say cherry but not choke cherry based on that.  Seeing the blossum, the ripening fruit and the fully ripe fruit would help.

Thanks, everyone.  No fruits or blossoms yet to observe, but will send those when available.

Found some pics

It looks a heckuva lot like choke cherry to me. It grows wild out here, bird planted, to the point of being a nuisance sometimes. But we're 2000 miles apart. Would a local version have a local accent perhaps?

Hoping to see blossoms soon; I think if they appear on a long stem (or raceme) it's choke cherry.  It seems very tolerant of poor light conditions and clay soil; two big factors on my property.  Hoping that plums or sour cherries will graft on to it ok (probably don't want any tree that grows too big).

https://bouldertreecare.com/chokecherry-prunus-virginiana/

https://www.prairienursery.com/store/native-plants/for-clay-soils/chokecherry-prunus-virginiana