Prunus avium, commonly called wild cherry, sweet cherry or gean, is a species of cherry, a flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It is native to western Eurasia and naturalized elsewhere. It is an ancestor of P. cerasus (sour cherry). All parts of the plant except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic, containing cyanogenic glycosides. The species is often cultivated as an ornamental tree.
Description
Prunus avium is a deciduous tree growing to 5–25 metres (16–82 feet) tall, with a trunk up to 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter. Young trees show strong apical dominance with a straight trunk and symmetrical conical crown, becoming rounded to irregular on old trees.
The bark is smooth reddish-brown with prominent horizontal grey-brown lenticels on young trees, becoming thick dark blackish-brown and fissured on old trees. The leaves are alternate, simple ovoid-acute, 7–14 centimetres (2+3⁄4–5+1⁄2 inches) long and 4–7 cm (1+1⁄2–2+3⁄4 in) broad, glabrous matt or sub-shiny green above, variably finely downy beneath, with a serrated margin and an acuminate tip, with a green or reddish petiole 2–3.5 cm (3⁄4–1+1⁄2 in) long bearing two to five small red glands. The tip of each serrated edge of the leaves also bear small red glands. In autumn, the leaves turn orange, pink or red before falling. The flowers are produced in early spring at the same time as the new leaves, borne in corymbs of two to six together, each flower pendent on a 2–5 cm (3⁄4–2 in) peduncle, 2.5–3.5 cm (1–1+1⁄2 in) in diameter, with five pure white petals, yellowish stamens, and a superior ovary; they are hermaphroditic, and pollinated by bees. The ovary contains two ovules, only one of which becomes the seed. The fruit is a drupe 1–2.5 cm (1⁄2–1 in) in diameter (larger in some cultivated selections), bright red to dark purple when mature in midsummer, variably tasting sweet to somewhat astringent and bitter when fresh. Each fruit contains a single hard-shelled stone 8–12 millimetres (3⁄8–1⁄2 in) long, 7–10 mm wide and 6–8 mm thick, grooved along the flattest edge; the seed (kernel) inside the stone is 6–8 mm long. Fruits persist for an average of 3 days. Fruits average 81.8% water, and their dry weight includes 45.1% carbohydrates and 1.8% lipids. Prunus avium has a diploid set of sixteen chromosomes (2n = 16).
Taxonomy
The early history of its classification is somewhat confused. In the first edition of Species Plantarum (1753), Linnaeus treated it as only a variety, Prunus cerasus var. avium, citing Gaspard Bauhin's Pinax theatri botanici (1596). His description, Cerasus racemosa hortensis ("cherry with racemes, of gardens") shows it was described from a cultivated plant. Linnaeus then changed from a variety to a species Prunus avium in the second edition of his Flora Suecica in 1755. Sweet cherry was known historically as gean or mazzard (also 'massard'). Until recently, both were largely obsolete names in modern English. The name "wild cherry" is also commonly applied to other species of Prunus growing in their native habitats, particularly to the North American species Prunus serotina. Prunus avium means "bird cherry" in the Latin language, but in English "bird cherry" refers to Prunus padus.
Mazzard 'Mazzard' has been used to refer to a selected self-fertile cultivar that comes true from seed, and which is used as a seedling rootstock for fruiting cultivars. The term is used particularly for the varieties of P. avium grown in North Devon and cultivated there, particularly in the British orchards at Landkey.
Distribution and habitat Prunus avium is native to Europe, Anatolia, Maghreb, and Western Asia, from the British Isles south to Morocco and Tunisia, north to the Trondheimsfjord region in Norway and east to the Caucasus and northern Iran, with a small isolated population in the western Himalaya. The species is widely cultivated in other regions and has become naturalized in North America, New Zealand and Australia.
Ecology The fruit are readily eaten by multiple kinds of birds and mammals, which digest the fruit flesh and disperse the seeds in their droppings. Some rodents, and a few birds (notably the hawfinch), also crack open the stones to eat the kernel inside. The leaves provide food for some animals, including Lepidoptera such as the case-bearer moth Coleophora anatipennella. The tree exudes a gum from wounds in the bark, by which it seals the wounds to exclude insects and fungal infections. Prunus avium is thought to be one of the parent species of Prunus cerasus (sour cherry), by way of ancient crosses between it and Prunus fruticosa (dwarf cherry) in the areas where the two species overlap. All three species can breed with one another. Prunus cerasus is now a species in its own right, having developed beyond a hybrid and stabilised.
Cultivation It is often cultivated as a flowering tree. Because of the size of the tree, it is often used in parkland, and less often as a street or garden tree. The double-flowered form, 'Plena', is commonly found, rather than the wild single-flowered forms. In the UK, P. avium 'Plena' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Two interspecific hybrids, P. × schmittii (P. avium × P. canescens) and P. × fontenesiana (P. avium × P. mahaleb) are also grown as ornamental trees.
Toxicity All parts of the plant except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic, containing cyanogenic glycosides.
Uses
Fruit
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