Pin Cherry

Prunus pensylvanica

KeystoneHosts 4 caterpillarsBird foodPollinator plant

Growing it

When	Flowers in May; fruits in August
Type	tree
Sun	Full sun, partial shade
Water	Low, medium
Soil	pH 5–7
Hardiness	zone 2–7
Mature height	8 m
Mature spread	4.5 m
Spacing	3 m
Years to maturity	8
Bloom	May
Flower colour	White read from a published flora
In bloom	May
Fruit	Aug
Native to	AB, SK

lance-shaped leaves about 8 cm long; a spreading, branching crown

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

177 squares of about 28 km, each holding at least one record. A square is not a claim that the plant grows throughout it, and an unshaded square is unrecorded rather than empty. Darker squares hold more records, which follows roads and towns as much as it follows the plant. 39 herbarium specimens and 385 field observations this project may redraw. A filled dot is a pressed sheet somebody can re-examine; a hollow ring is a photograph identified by community agreement. Where the dots are dense is where people have looked, not where the plant is commonest, and empty ground is unsurveyed rather than unoccupied. How this map is made.

Which ecoregions the records fall in

Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 241 records, high confidence
Boreal Transition central AB / SK: 112 records, high confidence
Mid-Boreal Uplands central AB / SK: 79 records, high confidence
Northern Continental Divide south AB: 25 records, high confidence
Peace Lowland north AB: 22 records, high confidence
Wabasca Lowland north AB: 22 records, high confidence
Cypress Upland south AB / SK: 19 records, medium confidence
Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 18 records, medium confidence
Western Alberta Upland central AB: 12 records, medium confidence
Churchill River Upland north SK: 7 records, low confidence
Slave River Lowland north AB: 7 records, low confidence
Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 5 records, low confidence

These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.

See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.

Documented animals

33 documented relationships.

nectar for

Acronicta fragilis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Aerial Yellowjacket Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Andrena crataegi Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Andrena milwaukeensis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Blue Orchard Mason Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Brown-belted Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Canadian Tiger Swallowtail Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Chalcosyrphus piger Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Confusing Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Cryptic Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Eastern Pine Elfin Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Erebia discoidalis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Erynnis juvenalis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Half-black Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Lomographa semiclarata Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Megachile melanophaea Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Molorchus bimaculatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Monarch Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
New York Carpenter Ant Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Northern Azure Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Northern Paper Wasp Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Orsodacne atra Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Painted Lady Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Tricoloured Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Yellow-banded Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org

caterpillar host for

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail Pohl et al. 2018
Cecropia Moth Pohl et al. 2018
Twin-spotted Sphinx Pohl et al. 2018
Western Tiger Swallowtail Pohl et al. 2018

fruit for

American Robin Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Cedar Waxwing Cornell Lab of Ornithology

pollen for

Mason Bees Wilson & Carril 2015

cover for

Black-capped Chickadee Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Also worth knowing

Safety

High toxicity to pets; Low toxicity to people

Edible parts

Fruit

Buying it

About $45–$120 per plant (estimate), sometimes in big-box garden sections. Estimate (tree default); AB retail as of 2026

Where these numbers came from

Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate