The leaves, twigs, bark and seeds of black cherry produce a chemical called cyanogenic glycoside. Hydrogen cyanide is released when the living parts of plant material are chewed and eaten and are ...

Black cherry leaves provide food for a number of butterfly caterpillars such as: swallowtails, viceroys, tussock moths, some sphinx moths and others.

Doug Tallamy, entomologist and author of "Bringing Nature Home," found that more than 400 species of native butterfly and moth caterpillars eat black cherry leaves.

Black cherry leaves come out early in the season and are oblong, 2 to 5 inches long, pointed and widest in the middle. Robbins described them as “glabrous,” meaning thicker and shinier than ...