A medium-sized, intolerant tree on moist, well-drained sites throughout the eastern U.S. It produces quality hardwood used for finer furniture and is the only important timber species in Rosaceae. Leaves are to 6", deciduous, oblong-lanceolate, finely serrate, dark green, lustrous above with orange pubesence along mid-vein below and a glandular petiole. Twigs are slender with a bitter almond taste, red-brown and sometimes with a gray epidermis. Buds have brown imbricate scales (with some green until late fall). Fruit is an edible, almost black drupe borne in racemes which ripens from June-October. Bark is red-brown to black with conspicuous light horizontal lenticels when young and later with platy scales.