Prunus avium, commonly calledwild cherry,[3]sweet cherry[3] orgean[3] is a species ofcherry, aflowering plant in the rose family,Rosaceae. It is native to Eurasia and naturalized elsewhere. It is an ancestor ofP. cerasus (sour cherry).
All parts of the plant except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic, containingcyanogenic glycosides. The species is often cultivated as anornamental tree.
Prunus avium is adeciduous tree growing to 5–25 metres (16–82 feet) tall,[4] with a trunk up to 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter. Young trees show strongapical dominance with a straight trunk and symmetrical conical crown, becoming rounded to irregular on old trees.[citation needed]
Thebark is smooth reddish-brown with prominent horizontal grey-brownlenticels on young trees,[4] becoming thick dark blackish-brown and fissured on old trees.
Theleaves are alternate, simple ovoid-acute, 7–14 centimetres (2+3⁄4–5+1⁄2 inches) long and4–7 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 reddishpetiole2–3.5 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.[5] In autumn, the leaves turn orange, pink or red before falling.
Theflowers are produced in early spring at the same time as the new leaves, borne incorymbs of two to six together, each flower pendent on a2–5 cm (3⁄4–2 in) peduncle,2.5–3.5 cm (1–1+1⁄2 in) in diameter, with five pure whitepetals, yellowishstamens, and asuperiorovary; they arehermaphroditic, and pollinated bybees. The ovary contains twoovules, only one of which becomes the seed.[6]
Thefruit is adrupe1–2.5 cm (1⁄2–1 in) in diameter (larger in some cultivated selections), bright red to dark purple when mature in midsummer,[4] variably tasting sweet to somewhatastringent and bitter when fresh. Each fruit contains a single hard-shelled stone8–12 millimetres (3⁄8–1⁄2 in) long, 7–10 mm wide and 6–8 mm thick, grooved along the flattest edge; theseed (kernel) inside the stone is 6–8 mm long. Fruitspersist for an average of 3 days. Fruits average 81.8% water, and theirdry weight includes 45.1%carbohydrates and 1.8%lipids.[7]
The early history of its classification is somewhat confused. In the first edition ofSpecies Plantarum (1753), Linnaeus treated it as only a variety,Prunus cerasus var.avium, citingGaspard Bauhin'sPinax theatri botanici (1596).[citation needed]
His description,Cerasus racemosa hortensis ("cherry with racemes, of gardens")[clarification needed] shows it was described from a cultivated plant.[9] Linnaeus then changed from a variety to a speciesPrunus avium in the second edition of hisFlora Suecica in 1755.[10]
Sweet cherry was known historically asgean ormazzard (also 'massard'). Until recently, both were largely obsolete names in modern English.[citation needed]
The name "wild cherry" is also commonly applied to other species ofPrunus growing in their native habitats, particularly to the North American speciesPrunus serotina.[citation needed]
'Mazzard' has been used to refer to a selectedself-fertilecultivar that comes true from seed, and which is used as a seedlingrootstock for fruiting cultivars.[13][14]The term is used particularly for the varieties ofP. avium grown in North Devon and cultivated there, particularly in the British orchards atLandkey.[citation needed]
The fruit are readily eaten by multiple kinds ofbirds andmammals, which digest the fruit flesh and disperse the seeds in their droppings. Somerodents, and a few birds (notably thehawfinch), also crack open the stones to eat the kernel inside.[citation needed]
The tree exudes agum from wounds in the bark, by which it seals the wounds to excludeinsects andfungal infections.[19]
Prunus avium is thought to be one of the parent species ofPrunus cerasus (sour cherry), by way of ancient crosses between it andPrunus 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.[20]
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.[21] In the UK,P. avium 'Plena' has gained theRoyal Horticultural Society'sAward of Garden Merit.[22][23]
Two interspecific hybrids,P. ×schmittii (P. avium ×P. canescens) andP. ×fontenesiana (P. avium ×P. mahaleb) are also grown as ornamental trees.[21]
Wild cherries have been an item of human food for several thousands of years. The stones have been found in deposits atBronze Age settlements throughout Europe, including in Britain.[13] In one dated example, wild cherry macrofossils were found in acore sample from the detritus beneath a dwelling at anEarly andMiddle Bronze Agepile-dwelling site on and in the shore of a former lake atDesenzano del Garda orLonato, near the southern shore ofLake Garda, Italy. The date is estimated at Early Bronze Age IA,carbon dated there to 2077BCE plus or minus 10 years. The natural forest was largely cleared at that time.[27]
By 800 BCE, cherries were being actively cultivated inAsia Minor, and soon after inGreece.[13]
As the main ancestor of the cultivated cherry, the sweet cherry is one of the two cherry species which supply most of the world's commercialcultivars of edible cherry (the other is thesour cherryPrunus cerasus, mainly used for cooking; a few other species have had a very small input).[13]
Various cherry cultivars are now grown worldwide wherever the climate is suitable; the number of cultivars is now very large.[13] The species has also escaped from cultivation and becomenaturalised in some temperate regions, including southwesternCanada,Japan,New Zealand, and the northeast and northwest of the United States.[11]
A greendye can also be prepared from the plant.[14]
Wild cherry is used extensively in Europe for theafforestation of agricultural land and it is also valued forwildlife andamenity plantings. Multiple European countries havegene conservation and/orbreeding programmes for wild cherry.[28]
Dihydrowogonin has been identified as a major constituent in the methanol extract of wild cherry bark.[29]
Pliny distinguishes betweenPrunus, theplum fruit,[30] andCerasus, the cherry fruit.[31] Already in Pliny quite a number of cultivars are cited, some possibly species or varieties, Aproniana, Lutatia, Caeciliana, and so on. Pliny grades them by flavour, including dulcis ("sweet") and acer ("sharp"),[32] and goes so far as to say that before the Roman consulLucius Licinius Lucullus defeatedMithridates in 74 BCE,Cerasia ... non-fuere in Italia, "There were no cherry trees in Italy". According to him, Lucullus brought them in fromPontus and in the 120 years since that time they had spread across Europe to Britain.[31] Some 18th- and 19th-century botanical authors[who?] assumed a western Asian origin for the species based on Pliny's writings, but this was contradicted by archaeological finds of seeds from prehistoric Europe.[citation needed]
Although cultivated/domesticated varieties ofP. avium did not exist in Britain or much of Europe, the tree in its wild state is native to most of Europe, including Britain. Evidence of consumption of the wild fruits has been found as far back as theBronze Age at aCrannog inCounty Offaly, inIreland.[33]
Seeds of a number of cherry species have however been found in Bronze Age and Roman archaeological sites throughout Europe. The reference to "sweet" and "sour" supports the modern view that "sweet" wasP. avium; there are no other candidates among the cherries found. In 1882Alphonse de Candolle pointed out that seeds ofP. avium were found in theTerramare culture of northItaly (1500–1100 BC) and over the layers of the Swiss pile dwellings.[34] Of Pliny's statement he says (p. 210):
Since this error is perpetuated by its incessant repetition in classical schools, it must once more be said that cherry trees (at least the bird cherry) existed in Italy before Lucullus, and that the famous gourmet did not need to go far to seek the species with the sour or bitter fruit.
De Candolle suggests that what Lucullus brought back was a particular cultivar ofP. avium from the Caucasus. The origin of cultivars ofP. avium is still an open question. Modern cultivated cherries differ from wild ones in having larger fruit, 2–3 cm diameter. The trees are often grown on dwarfing rootstocks to keep them smaller for easier harvesting.[35]
Folkard (1892) similarly identifies Lucullus's cherry as a cultivated variety. He states that it was planted in Britain a century after its introduction into Italy, but "disappeared during the Saxon period". He notes that in the fifteenth century "Cherries on the ryse" (i.e. on the twigs) was one of thestreet cries of London, but conjectures that these were the fruit of "the native wild Cherry, or Gean-tree". The cultivated variety was reintroduced into Britain by the fruiterer of Henry VIII, who brought it from Flanders and planted a cherry orchard at Teynham.[36]
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