There's this tree that seems to be spreading along the wood line at a industrial complex area I visit. It looked interesting so I had grabbed a couple small plant's that were sprouting up. The largest of the group was about 30ft tall but most were shorter and more leaning towards the area where the sun shown best.

It's December with temperatures having already dipped below freezing around 4 or 5 times, but the leaves are still vibrant and with no signs of it wilting at all.

I'm hesitant to plant these around my house in case they are poisonous or invasive. There seems to be a lot of bird nest's around them, so I had thought the berries were attracting them. After coming home I decided to see what was inside some of the berries I gathered. They are 1/2 inch in size, with a large seed that takes up the entire center surrounded by the skin. I'm unsure if the birds were actually eating these now since they are so large.

Anyone with knowledge on what this may be? Only thing I can come up with after searching for hours is a thornless Cockspur Hawthorn but I'm not too sure about that. I first thought Chokeberry or Service Berry tree, but the berries on this tree have nothing there but the seed inside.






The tallest of the tree's i this picture surround by others, most likely it's offspring.

Prunus caroliniana?

sooby said: Prunus caroliniana?

That's it, a Carolina Cherry Laurel. I should have been putting cherries in my search's rather than berries to find it.

Now that I know it's not invasive I'll spread the berries where I think they'll do some good for the local wildlife. It's poisonous to livestock and humans so I'll refrain from planting it in my yard.

Thanks a bunch!

It may not be invasive there, but here it is very aggressive - a real nuisance. The birds plant it everywhere. Beware!

I thought about Cherry Laurel but I thought the fruits grew down a stem, not so clustered as in your photos.

The database does not show any Cherry Laurels with the clustered fruit the original post shows. However there are very few photos of the fruit at all.

The plant in question also seems to have almost-opposite leaves, whereas my Cherry Laurels have clearly alternate leaves.....?

Ligustrum?

The leaves don't connect to the stem like my (very annoying) Ligustrums.

The leaves look alternate to me, especially if you look at the buds. The leaf bases/buds are reddish too, like pics of P. caroliniana. But I too was a bit concerned about the bunching fruits, although there are pictures on the web where they don't look to be clearly along a stem.

Here's a rather blurry enlargement from the above pics showing the leaf arrangement.

According to Flora of North America, different Prunus can have inflorescences of "racemes, corymbs, umbellate fascicles, 2-flowered fascicles, or solitary". However P. caroliniana is a raceme.

At least from the parts I can see clearly, there are only racemes in the pics. The First pic show many individual racemes together. Each one originating from a different bud on last year's wood. In other words, the clump is many inflorescences, not a single one.

Put image in Google Lens.

Google lens says Java Plum, Syzygium cumini.

I tried a Google search. Says Marlberry.

I had to try Google Lens just to see what answer I'd get. I find it useful as one tool to get closer to IDing a plant, as long as you do further checking and don't take it as gospel.

It listed 7 possibilities, with Indonesian Bay Leaf first. But looking at them all, I'd have to go with Carolina Cherry Laurel, which was 3rd in the list. Java Plum was 2nd.

Here's the full list it gave me: