Question: Hello there! I bet no one has told you, you sure are good looking! I am hoping someone will be …
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Question
Hello there! I bet no one has told you, you sure are good looking! I am hoping someone will be able to tell me what is going on here in this photo. The flowers are on a Black Cherry, I believe Prunus serotina. The first photo is the one with the unusual pods. Are Black Cherries monoecious and the elongated whitish pods are male structures, or something like that? Thank you very much for your attention and expertise. SueLB
Answer
Dear SueLB, it certainly does look like you have photographed Prunus serotina (black cherry). However, this species is synoecius, meaning it has bisexual flowers (i.e., flowers with both stamens for pollen and carpels for ovules). The structures you are seeing on some flowers are galls of some sort. I do not know which organism has created the galls, but they are not typical of the flowers for this species.
