My mystery tree

I am fortunate to live in a region that wants to be forest. Any time an area is not mown, trees will sprout. (Or Giant Ragweed!) Yay! But from this status comes many a mystery, What is it!?

It is about 25 feet tall





I have two of these trees. They are about 25 to 30 feet tall now. I estimate their age at 4 or 5 years old. They captured my interest this year as they flowered for the first time.




The flowers have now developed into um… fruits. They are now about 3/8 inch in diameter, still hard and green.  Presumably they are not ripe yet, but about a quarter have fallen from the stems. Maybe from high winds from recent thunderstorms? After several weeks the fruits are still the same size.

Well I was going to say those look just like my chokecherry blossoms but they do not get that tall around here. Of course, in my area nothing grows well. :P

Chokecherry?

Oops, didn't see elle had already guessed it!

I really think you have a fruit tree but I'm unable to give you an exact variety. The smooth bark with short horizontal marks and the shape of the leaf lead me to think this. I think elle may have hit the mark with the chokecherry suggestion. Chokecherry blossoms come in clusters like the ones in your picture.

Thanks guys! The tree matches Samuel Thayer's description here.

The chokecherry Prunus virginiana is a large shrub or small tree, usually found growing in small clonal clusters. Typical size for fruiting bushes is one to three inches in diameter and eight to fifteen feet tall. Fruit is occasionally produced on plants only three feet high, and exceptionally large specimens may reach forty feet in height and a foot in diameter. Chokecherry bushes are completely devoid of thorns.  

Thayer also mentions black cherry in his article, but describes them as smaller than choke cherry. Are there any other wild cherries? I'll wait for the fruit to ripen for further ID.

Crush a leaf and smell it, if it smells "dark", it's likely a black cherry.