Prunus emarginata

Oregon cherry or Bitter cherry (Prunus emarginata) is a species of Prunus native to western North America, from British Columbia south to California, and east to western Wyoming and Arizona. It is often found in recently disturbed areas, open woods, on nutrient-rich soil. It is a deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 1-15 meter tall with a slender oval trunk with smooth gray to reddish-brown bark with horizontal lenticels. The leaves are 2-8 centimeter long, thin, oval-shaped, and yellowish-green with unevenly-sized teeth on either side. The flowers are small, 10-15 millimeter diameter, with five white petals and numerous hairlike stamens; they are almond-scented, and produced in clusters in spring, and are pollinated by insects. The fruit is a juicy red or purple cherry 7-14 millimeter diameter, which, as the plant’s English name suggests, are bitter. As well as reproducing by seed, it also sends out underground stems which then sprout above the surface to create a thicket.