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Montana Field Guide

Montana Field Guides

Bitter Cherry - Prunus emarginata

Native Species

Global Rank: G5
State Rank: S4?
C-value: 5


Agency Status
USFWS:
USFS:
BLM:


 

External Links






 
General Description
Shrub or small tree 2–5 m. Twigs purple, glabrous. Leaf blades oblong to oblanceolate, rounded to the tip, 2–8 cm long, glabrous or puberulent beneath. Inflorescence a hemispheric, 5- to 8-flowered corymb, appearing with the leaves. Flowers: hypanthium 2–3 mm long, obconic, glabrous or hairy; sepals ovate, reflexed, 2–3 mm long; petals 4–7 mm long. Drupe a red to black cherry, 6–8 mm long when dry (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Species Range
Montana Range Range Descriptions

Native
 


Range Comments
BC, MT south to CA, NV and UT (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database
Number of Observations: 84

(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version) Map Help and Descriptions
Relative Density

Recency

 

(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)



Habitat
Open forest, thickets, along streams; valleys, montane (Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Ecology
POLLINATORS
The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap: Bombus vagans, Bombus bifarius, Bombus huntii, Bombus mixtus, Bombus ternarius, Bombus terricola, Bombus occidentalis, Bombus pensylvanicus, Bombus bimaculatus, Bombus griseocollis, and Bombus impatiens (Macior 1968, Heinrich 1976, Thorp et al. 1983, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Williams et al. 2014).

References
  • Literature Cited AboveLegend:   View Online Publication
    • Colla, S.R. and S. Dumesh. 2010. The bumble bees of southern Ontario: notes on natural history and distribution. Journal of the Entomological Society of Ontario 141:39-68.
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 771 p.
    • Macior, L.M. 1968. Bombus (Hymenoptera, Apidae) queen foraging in relation to vernal pollination in Wisconsin. Ecology 49:20-25.
    • Thorp, R.W., D.S. Horning, and L.L. Dunning. 1983. Bumble bees and cuckoo bumble bees of California (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Bulletin of the California Insect Survey 23:1-79.
    • Williams, P., R. Thorp, L. Richardson, and S. Colla. 2014. Bumble Bees of North America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 208 p.
  • Additional ReferencesLegend:   View Online Publication
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    • Klebenow, D.A. 1965. A montane forest winter deer habitat in western Montana. Journal of Wildlife Management 29(1):27-33.
    • Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants, Second Edition. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 779 p.
    • Little, E.L., Jr. 1979. Checklist of United States trees (native and naturalized). Agriculture Handbook No. 541. U.S. Forest Service, Washington, D.C. 375 pp.
  • Web Search Engines for Articles on "Bitter Cherry"
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Citation for data on this website:
Bitter Cherry — Prunus emarginata.  Montana Field Guide.  .  Retrieved on , from