Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Pin cherry is rated fire resistant, with low-flammability and Firewise recommendations across several regions.
North Carolina extension guidance places pin cherry in the low category on scales where low-flammability plants are recommended, and its current Plant Toolbox repeats that rating. Oregon State’s extension service profiles it among fire-resistant trees suited to Willamette Valley conditions. FireSmart BC approves it as fire resistant but also flags it as needing more research. Fremont County, Wyoming, includes it among Firewise large shrubs and trees; that list generally favors plants described as low-debris and relatively moist.
These sources do not all use the same method. North Carolina sorts plants into comparative flammability bands, while Oregon and British Columbia use recommendation lists. Fremont County offers no adverse classes for comparison. Their agreement therefore supports the practical verdict, but FireSmart BC’s research flag is a reason to keep the claim measured: fire resistant does not mean unable to burn.
Pin cherry is a roughly 30-foot tree in the rose family, requires moderate water, and is hardy to USDA zone 3a. For a homeowner choosing vegetation around a house, it belongs among the lower-flammability options identified by these services, while ordinary vegetation maintenance still matters.
Form
tree
Mature height
~30 ft
Water need
moderate
Rated in
British Columbia; Fremont County, Wyoming; Maine; NC +4
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Fremont County (WY footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-02-25
The source identifies itself as the Fremont County Firewise Plant List. FireApproved publishes its 92 exact source owners as Fremont County regional context. No methodology, current county endorsement, statewide Wyoming scope, or site-specific suitability is inferred.
Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08
The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.
Maine Forest Service presents a partial list for landscaping 30-100 feet from a structure. FireApproved publishes only 39 unique exact current/accepted matches plus Rhus typhina from the source's explicit parenthetical; unresolved, abbreviated, misspelled, absent, and duplicate-owner rows remain held.
The complete three-table AG-874 plant list is explicitly for North Carolina and contains 202 low-, medium-, or high-flammability rows. FireApproved accounts for all source rows under its strict taxonomy and lineage rules; source scope does not establish local suitability at a particular North Carolina site.
Willamette Valley (OR footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2015-02-01
OSU Extension says EM 9103 highlights fire-resistant plants that thrive under Willamette Valley growing conditions. FireApproved publishes 172 exact owners only as valley context. The guide shares the PNW 590 lineage and is not a second independent vote or statewide site clearance.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in CO, CT, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MT, NC, ND, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SD, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV, WY.
Native range
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
2 applicable cited hardiness statements overlap but have different boundaries; compare each complete source row.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 90621, Temperature, Minimum (°F).
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database: plantable at 50' from home [Idaho minimum planting distance] (mid-scale rating)
Fire-resistant Landscape Plants for the Willamette Valley: Pin Cherry or Fire Cherry profile (PDF page 178) [osu-em-9103-profile] (with its recommendation)
North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: prunus-pensylvanica [nc-toolbox-flammability-facet] (with its recommendation)
Maine fire-resistant plant list: Trees, page 1: Pin/fire/bird cherry - Prunus pensylvanica [Maine Forest Service list section and page] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
“Fremont County Firewise Plant List — Prunus pennsylvanica — Pine/Fire/Wild/Red Cherry”
Listed in the source's Large Shrubs and Trees section; the page describes its listed Firewise plants as generally low-growing, low-debris, and relatively moist.
Maine fire-resistant plant list — Maine Forest Service, Forest Protection Division · MFS-list-updated-2013-10-23 · original sourceCorroborationCompilationlineage: me-mfs-fire-resistant-plants
“listed as fire-resistant for landscaping 30-100 feet from a structure”
· original source
Maine Forest Service includes Pin/fire/bird cherry (Prunus pensylvanica) on its partial fire-resistant plant list for landscaping 30-100 feet from a structure. The printed scientific name is a unique accepted-name match to this record.
