Glossy red-brown bark banded with cream horizontal lines, and two red glands where each leaf joins its stalk
Wild cherry.
Nature · Trees
Wild cherry
Native · deciduous, to 30 m · blossoms April · woods and hedgerows
Prunus avium — Rosaceae
Wild cherry, also called gean in Scotland, is a native tree of woods and hedgerows with glossy red-brown bark, a froth of white blossom in April and small red cherries eaten by birds. It is the ancestor of the sweet cherries of orchards. Two red glands at the top of the leaf stalk are the classic tell.
How to know it
How to spot them
- ▸Shiny reddish-brown bark with prominent cream horizontal lenticels
- ▸Two red glands at the top of the leaf stalk (petiole)
- ▸Oval, toothed, pointed leaves 6–15 cm that turn orange and crimson in autumn
- ▸White cup-shaped blossom in April, in hanging clusters of two to six
- ▸Globular red cherries on long stalks; spreads by root suckers
How to know it
A native tree known in Scotland as the gean, with a Latin epithet recalling the birds that spread its seed
Wild cherry (Prunus avium) — gean in Scotland.
Hanging clusters of two to six white cup-shaped flowers in April, followed by shiny deep-red fruit on long stalks
Wild cherry.
Its leaves turn orange and deep crimson in autumn; its honey-coloured wood is prized for veneers and furniture
Wild cherry.
Sometimes spreads by root suckers, unlike the almond-scented, raceme-flowered cousin of northern streamsides
Wild cherry; bird cherry does not sucker.
The wild ancestor of the sweet orchard cherry, with fruit taken by blackbirds, thrushes, badgers and dormice
Wild cherry.
Quick-fire facts
- •Prunus avium: avium refers to birds, which eat the cherries and spread the seed
- •In Scotland the tree is often called gean
- •Mature trees reach 30 m and live up to about 60 years (Woodland Trust)
- •Woodland Trust: two red glands on the leaf stalk are the key feature; bird cherry has the same glands but finely sharp-toothed leaves and flowers in racemes
- •Sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) and cherry plum are other lookalikes
- •Fruits are eaten by blackbird, song thrush, badger, wood mouse and dormouse; moths include the cherry fruit moth and brimstone
- •Highland folklore held that meeting a wild cherry was auspicious and fateful
- •Pruning at the wrong time of year exposes cherry to silver leaf disease; bacterial canker also affects it
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Sources
- Woodland Trust — Wild cherry (Prunus avium)