08/18/2026
Happy Tuesday from Riverview Park! Have you ever seen these small dark colored fruits on the ground when hiking through the parks? They’re black cherries!
Black cherry trees are a very common tree in Pittsburgh’s parks. But they grow tall and rarely have low branches, so you often don’t see their fruit until it falls to the ground during this time of year. These wild and native cherries are edible, but most people find them to have a strange bitterness to them, and a very big pit with very little fruit.
That doesn’t stop the wildlife from enjoying them, though! Fruits are tasty because the plant wants them to be eaten. Once an animal eats a fruit like this, they later p**p them out and spread the seed to a new location, starting a new place for the plant’s offspring to grow.
Black cherries are known to be a favorite of box turtles, which can sometimes be found right here in Riverview Park! They can’t climb much so they don’t get a lot of yummy fruit unless its low to the ground. So, this is a great time of year to see these terrestrial turtles foraging for fruit!
