Tree of the Week

Chokecherry, Prunus virginiana L.

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Small tree or shrub, often colonial. Leaves simple, alternate, oval or obovate, 2 to 4 inches long with petioles ½ to 1 inch long; margins finely toothed, the tips of the teeth sharp and pointing outward; two glands normally present on petiole near the base of the blade. Winter twigs slender, glabrous, gray or red-brown; leaf scars small, half-round, with 3 bundle scars. Buds long-ovoid, 3/16 to ¼ inch long (sometimes larger), terminal and laterals nearly equal in size; scales 6 or more, glabrous, brown with light-colored margins. Flowers similar to black cherry but commonly blooming earlier in spring; petals nearly round. Fruit a drupe ¼ to 1/3 inch in diameter, red or dark purplish red when ripe; calyx deciduous. Bark gray, smooth.

SIMILAR TREES: Black cherry has narrower leaves with incurved teeth. Wild plum has its flowers in small, umbellike clusters, and its fruits are much larger. In winter, black cherry has dark red-brown bud scales; other trees with similar twigs have false terminal buds.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Native throughout the state.

Forest and Shade Trees of Iowa by Peter J. van der Linden and Donald R. Farrar

Comfort Foods from Iowa

Scalloped Corn Casserole

1-pound can cream-style corn

1-pound can whole kernel corn (drained)

¼ cup minced onion

¾ cup milk

½ cup light cream or half-and-half

1/8 teaspoon pepper

2 cups crushed soda crackers

2 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces

In a mixing bowl combine all ingredients except butter and spoon the mixture into a buttered 1 ½-quart shallow baking dish. Dot with butter. Bake in a 325 degree oven for 30 minutes, then stir the mixture and reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes. Serves 4 to 6.

Prairie Cooks: Glorified Rice, Three-Day Buns, and Other Reminiscences by Carrie Young

Winter Story

March 15, 1917 / Ft. Pierre, So. Dak.

To Mrs. M. M. Corey

It's great weather we’re having. Some days like the good old summer time and some like Greenland’s icy mountains. Most every one around here is “fighting a cold.” A small lad of my acquaintance seems to be suffering with a cold in the head and as a matter of course his friends suffer with him. I asked him once if he hadn’t a handkerchief. He felt in his pocket and replied “No, but I got a cork.” He was so amazed at my amusement that I didn’t even suggest him using the cork.

Bachelor Bess: The Homesteading Letters of Elizabeth Corey, 1909-1919, edited by Philip Gerber