Prunus avium

{{Short description|Species of flowering plant in the rose family}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}} {{Speciesbox | image = Prunus avium fruit.jpg | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name="iucn status 19 November 2021">{{cite iucn |author=Rivers, M.C. |date=2017 |title=''Prunus avium'' |volume=2017 |article-number=e.T172064A50673544 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-3.RLTS.T172064A50673544.en |access-date=19 November 2021}}</ref> | display_parents = 2 | genus = Prunus | parent = Prunus sect. Cerasus | species = avium | authority = L. | range_map = Prunus avium range.svg | range_map_caption = Distribution map | synonyms= {{Collapsible list |{{Plainlist | style = margin-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em; | * ''Prunus cerasus'' var. ''avium'' L. * ''Cerasus avium'' (L.) Moench * ''Druparia avium'' (L.) Clairv. * ''Prunus bigarella'' Dumort. * ''Prunus duracina'' (L.) Sweet * ''Prunus juliana'' (L.) Gaudin * ''Prunus nigricans'' Ehrh. * ''Prunus varia'' Ehrh. }} }} | synonyms_ref = <ref name="powo">{{Cite web |title=''Prunus avium'' L. |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/results?q=prunus%20avium |access-date=17 March 2024 |website=Plants of the World Online |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew}}</ref> }} thumb|Prunus avium '''''Prunus avium''''', commonly called '''wild cherry''',<ref name="GRIN">{{GRIN | access-date = 11 December 2017}}</ref> '''sweet cherry'''<ref name="GRIN" /> or '''gean''',<ref name="GRIN" /> 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 == [[File:Glandes Prunus avium.jpg|thumb|Red glands (extrafloral nectaries) on the petiole]] ''Prunus avium'' is a deciduous tree growing to {{Convert|5-25|m|abbr=off}} tall,<ref name="tktimb">{{Cite book |last1=Turner |first1=Mark |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VLbAAwAAQBAJ |title=Trees & Shrubs of the Pacific Northwest |last2=Kuhlmann |first2=Ellen |date=2014 |publisher=Timber Press |isbn=978-1-60469-263-1 |edition=1st |location=Portland, OR |page=251}}</ref> with a trunk up to {{convert|1.5|m|ft|abbr=on|sigfig=1}} in diameter. Young trees show strong apical dominance with a straight trunk and symmetrical conical crown, becoming rounded to irregular on old trees.{{cn|date=December 2023}} * The bark is smooth reddish-brown with prominent horizontal grey-brown lenticels on young trees,<ref name="tktimb" /> becoming thick dark blackish-brown and fissured on old trees. * The leaves are alternate, simple ovoid-acute, {{convert|7|–|14|cm|abbr=off|frac=4}} long and {{convert|4|–|7|cm|in|abbr=on|frac=4}} 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 {{convert|2|–|3.5|cm|abbr=on|frac=4}} long bearing two to five small red glands. The tip of each serrated edge of the leaves also bear small red glands.<ref name="Conrad">{{Cite web |date=12 June 2005 |title=Jim Conrad's Newsletter. Cherry leaf glands |url=http://www.backyardnature.net/n/05/050612.htm |access-date=24 April 2012 |publisher=Backyardnature.net}}</ref> 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 {{convert|2|–|5|cm|abbr=on|frac=4}} peduncle, {{convert|2.5|–|3.5|cm|abbr=on|frac=4}} 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sweet cherries |url=http://www.pollinator.ca/bestpractices/cherries.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180530201159/http://www.pollinator.ca/bestpractices/cherries.html |archive-date=30 May 2018 |access-date=9 March 2015 |website=pollinator.ca}}</ref> * The fruit is a drupe {{convert|1-2.5|cm|abbr=on|frac=4}} in diameter (larger in some cultivated selections), bright red to dark purple when mature in midsummer,<ref name="tktimb" /> variably tasting sweet to somewhat astringent and bitter when fresh. Each fruit contains a single hard-shelled stone {{Convert|8–12|mm|frac=8}} 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.{{sfn|Ehrlén|Eriksson|1991}} thumb|upright|''Prunus avium'' in spring''Prunus avium'' has a diploid set of sixteen chromosomes (2''n'' = 16).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tavaud |first1=M. |last2=Zanetto |first2=A. |last3=David |first3=J. L. |last4=Laigret |first4=F. |last5=Dirlewanger |first5=E. |year=2004 |title=Genetic relationships between diploid and allotetraploid cherry species (''Prunus avium'', ''Prunus × gondouinii'' and ''Prunus cerasus'') |journal=Heredity |volume=93 |issue=6 |pages=631–638 |doi=10.1038/sj.hdy.6800589 |pmid=15354194 |s2cid=19444068 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2004Hered..93..631T }}</ref>

==Taxonomy== thumb|Blossom 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).{{cn|date=December 2023}}

His description, ''Cerasus racemosa hortensis'' ("cherry with racemes, of gardens"){{clarify|if it has racemes, then it isn't P. avium|date=January 2011}} shows it was described from a cultivated plant.<ref name="L.">Linnaeus, C. (1753). ''Species Plantarum'' 1: 474. [http://www.botanicus.org/page/358493 Online facsimile.]</ref> Linnaeus then changed from a variety to a species ''Prunus avium'' in the second edition of his ''Flora Suecica'' in 1755.<ref name="L.2">Linnaeus, C. (1755). ''Flora Suecica'', ed. 2: 165.</ref>

Sweet cherry was known historically as '''gean''' or '''mazzard''' (also 'massard'). Until recently, both were largely obsolete names in modern English.{{cn|date=December 2023}}

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''.{{cn|date=December 2023}}

''Prunus avium'' means "bird cherry" in the Latin language,<ref name="vf">Den Virtuella Floran: [https://web.archive.org/web/19990503195752/http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/di/rosa/prunu/prunavi.html ''Prunus avium''] (in Swedish; with [https://web.archive.org/web/20010826125402/http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/di/rosa/prunu/prunaviv.jpg map])</ref> but in English "bird cherry" refers to ''Prunus padus''.<ref name="fnwe2">Flora of NW Europe: [http://ip30.eti.uva.nl/BIS/flora.php?selected=beschrijving&menuentry=soorten&id=2721 ''Prunus padus''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090309071108/http://ip30.eti.uva.nl/BIS/flora.php?selected=beschrijving&menuentry=soorten&id=2721|date=9 March 2009}}</ref>

===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.<ref name="rhs">Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan {{ISBN|0-333-47494-5}}.</ref><ref name="pfaf">Plants for a Future: [http://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Prunus%20avium ''Prunus avium'']</ref> 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.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

==Distribution and habitat== ''Prunus avium'' is native to Europe, Anatolia, Maghreb, and Western Asia, from the British Isles<ref>[http://www.british-trees.com/guide/wildcherry.htm British Trees Online] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000903080943/http://www.british-trees.com/guide/wildcherry.htm|date=3 September 2000}}</ref> 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.<ref name="vf" /> The species is widely cultivated in other regions and has become naturalized in North America, New Zealand and Australia.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Atlas of Living Australia |title=Prunus avium: Sweet Cherry – Atlas of Living Australia |url=http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:apni.taxon:377193# |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304200842/http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:apni.taxon:377193 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=16 August 2015 |website=ala.org.au}}</ref><ref>[http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=9204 Calflora taxon report, University of California, '''Prunus avium''' (L.) L. sweet cherry]</ref><ref>[http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242341424 Flora of North America, ''Prunus avium'' (Linnaeus) Linnaeus, 1755. Sweet cherry, cerisier des oiseaux]</ref>

==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.{{cn|date=December 2023}}

The leaves provide food for some animals, including Lepidoptera such as the case-bearer moth ''Coleophora anatipennella''.{{cn|date=December 2023}}

The tree exudes a gum from wounds in the bark, by which it seals the wounds to exclude insects and fungal infections.<ref name="vedel">Vedel, H., & Lange, J. (1960). ''Trees and Bushes in Wood and Hedgerow''. Metheun & Co. Ltd., London.</ref>

''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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stocks |first=Christopher |year=2009 |title=Britain's forgotten fruits |journal=Flora |volume=1 |pages=1–200}}</ref>

==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.<ref name="egf">European Garden Flora; Volume IV</ref> In the UK, ''P. avium'' 'Plena' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.<ref name="RHSPF">{{Cite web |title=''Prunus avium'' 'Plena' |url=https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/96348/Prunus-avium-Plena-(d)/Details |access-date=24 February 2020 |website=www.rhs.org |publisher=Royal Horticultural Society}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=July 2017 |title=AGM Plants - Ornamental |url=https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/agm-lists/agm-ornamentals.pdf |access-date=18 February 2020 |website=www.rhs.org |publisher=Royal Horticultural Society |page=107}}</ref>

Two interspecific hybrids, ''P''. × ''schmittii'' (''P. avium'' × ''P. canescens'') and ''P''. × ''fontenesiana'' (''P. avium'' × ''P. mahaleb'') are also grown as ornamental trees.<ref name="egf" />

==Toxicity== All parts of the plant except for the ripe fruit are slightly toxic, containing cyanogenic glycosides.<ref name="rushforth">Rushforth, K. (1999). ''Trees of Britain and Europe''. Collins {{ISBN|0-00-220013-9}}.</ref><ref name="mitchell">Mitchell, A. F. (1974). ''Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe''. Collins {{ISBN|0-00-212035-6}}.</ref><ref name="fnwe">Flora of NW Europe: [http://ip30.eti.uva.nl/BIS/flora.php?selected=beschrijving&menuentry=soorten&id=2715 ''Prunus avium''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090309075904/http://ip30.eti.uva.nl/BIS/flora.php?selected=beschrijving&menuentry=soorten&id=2715|date=9 March 2009}}</ref>

==Uses== ===Fruit=== {{Main|Cherry}}

thumb|Pairs of fruit growing from the same stem Wild cherries have been an item of human food for several thousands of years. The stones have been found in deposits at Bronze Age settlements throughout Europe, including in Britain.<ref name="rhs" /> In one dated example, wild cherry macrofossils were found in a core sample from the detritus beneath a dwelling at an Early and Middle Bronze Age pile-dwelling site on and in the shore of a former lake at Desenzano del Garda or Lonato, near the southern shore of Lake Garda, Italy. The date is estimated at Early Bronze Age IA, carbon dated there to 2077 BCE plus or minus 10 years. The natural forest was largely cleared at that time.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=de Marinis |first1=R. C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WFRRswEACAAJ |title=WES'04: Wetland Economies and Societies: Proceedings of the International Conference, Zurich, 10-13 March 2004 |last2=Rapi |first2=M. |last3=Ravazzi |first3=C. |last4=Arpenti |first4=E. |last5=Deaddis |first5=M. |last6=Perego |first6=R. |publisher=Chronos |year=2005 |isbn=978-3-908025-38-2 |editor-last=Della Casa |editor-first=Philippe |series=Collectio Archæologica |volume=3 |pages=221–232 |chapter=Lavagnone (Desenzano del Garda): New excavations and palaeoecology of a Bronze Age pile dwelling in northern Italy |hdl=2434/7581 |editor-last2=Trachsel |editor-first2=Martin |chapter-url=http://www.disat.unimib.it/Palinologia/download/Lavagnone%20De%20Marinis%20et%20al.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-20 |hdl-access=free |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720081618/http://www.disat.unimib.it/Palinologia/download/Lavagnone%20De%20Marinis%20et%20al.pdf}}</ref>

By 800 BCE, cherries were being actively cultivated in Asia Minor, and soon after in Greece.<ref name="rhs" />

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 commercial cultivars of edible cherry (the other is the sour cherry ''Prunus cerasus'', mainly used for cooking; a few other species have had a very small input).<ref name="rhs" />

Various cherry cultivars are now grown worldwide wherever the climate is suitable; the number of cultivars is now very large.<ref name="rhs" /> The species has also escaped from cultivation and become naturalised in some temperate regions, including southwestern Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the northeast and northwest of the United States.<ref name="vf" />

===Timber=== The hard, reddish-brown wood (cherry wood) is valued as a hardwood for woodturning, and making cabinets and musical instruments.<ref name="vedel" /> Cherry wood is also used for smoking foods, particularly meats, in North America, as it lends a distinct and pleasant flavor to the product.{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}}

===Other uses=== [[File:Prunus avium burlat_coupe_MHNT.jpg|thumb|''Prunus avium burlat'' - MHNT]] The gum from bark wounds is aromatic and can be chewed as a substitute for chewing gum. Medicine can be prepared from the stalks (peduncles) of the drupes that is astringent, antitussive, and diuretic.<ref name="pfaf" />

A green dye can also be prepared from the plant.<ref name="pfaf" />

Wild cherry is used extensively in Europe for the afforestation of agricultural land and it is also valued for wildlife and amenity plantings. Multiple European countries have gene conservation and/or breeding programmes for wild cherry.<ref>{{Citation |last=Russell |title=Wild cherry - ''Prunus avium'': Technical guidelines for genetic conservation and use |date=2003 |page=6 |url=http://www.euforgen.org/fileadmin//templates/euforgen.org/upload/Publications/Technical_guidelines/859_Technical_guidelines_for_genetic_conservation_and_use_for_Wild_cherry__Prunus_avium_.pdf |publisher=European Forest Genetic Resources Programme |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131184915/http://www.euforgen.org/fileadmin//templates/euforgen.org/upload/Publications/Technical_guidelines/859_Technical_guidelines_for_genetic_conservation_and_use_for_Wild_cherry__Prunus_avium_.pdf |archive-date=2017-01-31}}</ref>

Dihydrowogonin has been identified as a major constituent in the methanol extract of wild cherry bark.<ref name="PMC7148530">{{cite journal |last1=Gomes |first1=Aline |last2=Teixeira |first2=Adilson L. |last3=Rodrigues |first3=João H. S. |last4=Silva |first4=Gabriela |year=2020 |title=The impact of Prunus avium extracts on microbial growth and biofilm formation |journal=Plants |volume=9 |issue=4 |page=466 |doi=10.3390/plants9040466 |doi-access=free |pmid=32143394 |pmc=7148530}}</ref>

==Cultural history== Pliny distinguishes between ''Prunus'', the plum fruit,<ref>''Natural History'' Book XV Section XII.</ref> and ''Cerasus'', the cherry fruit.<ref name="NH30">Pliny. ''Natural History'' Book XV Section XXX.</ref> 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"),<ref>N.H. Book XV Sections XXXI–II.</ref> and goes so far as to incorrectly say that before the Roman consul Lucius Licinius Lucullus defeated Mithridates in 74 BCE, ''Cerasia ... non-fuere in Italia'', "There were no cherry trees in Italy". According to him, Lucullus brought them in from Pontus and in the 120 years since that time they had spread across Europe to Britain.<ref name="NH30" /> Some 18th- and 19th-century botanical authors{{Who|date=January 2011}} 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.{{cn|date=December 2023}}

Although cultivated/domesticated varieties of ''P. 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 the Bronze Age at a Crannog in County Offaly, in Ireland.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Milner |first=Edward |year=2011 |title=Trees of Britain and Ireland |journal=Flora |volume=1 |page=148}}</ref>

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" was ''P. avium''; there are no other candidates among the cherries found. In 1882 Alphonse de Candolle pointed out that seeds of ''P. avium'' were found in the Terramare culture of north Italy (1500–1100 BCE) and over the layers of the Swiss pile dwellings.<ref>Candolle, A. de (1882). ''Origine des plantes cultivées''. Geneva.</ref> Of Pliny's statement he says (p. 210): <blockquote>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.</blockquote> De Candolle suggests that what Lucullus brought back was a particular cultivar of ''P. avium'' from the Caucasus. The origin of cultivars of ''P. 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Panda |first1=Sauris |last2=Martín |first2=Juan Pedro |last3=Aguinagalde |first3=Itziar |year=2003 |title=Chloroplast DNA study in sweet cherry cultivars (''Prunus avium'' L.) using PCR-RFLP method |url=http://fernando.gonzalez.unileon.es/web_mex14/articulos/GRACE_50.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution |volume=50 |issue=5 |pages=489–495 |doi=10.1023/A:1023986416037 |bibcode=2003GRCEv..50..489P |s2cid=20539012 |archive-date=2020-03-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200321111626/http://fernando.gonzalez.unileon.es/web_mex14/articulos/GRACE_50.pdf}}</ref>

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 the street 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.<ref>Folkard, Richard (1892) "Plant Lore, Legends and Lyrics", 2nd edn., Sampson, Low, Marston & Company, London.</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Bibliography== * {{cite journal |date=1991 |first1=Johan |last1=Ehrlén |first2=Ove |last2=Eriksson |title=Phenological variation in fruit characteristics in vertebrate-dispersed plants |pages=463–470 |doi=10.1007/BF00318311 |journal=Oecologia |issn=0029-8549 |volume=86 |issue=4 |bibcode=1991Oecol..86..463E }}

==External links== * {{PFAF|Prunus avium}} * {{Commons category-inline|Prunus avium}} * [http://www.euforgen.org/species/prunus-avium/ ''Prunus avium''] - distribution map, genetic conservation units and related resources. European Forest Genetic Resources Programme (EUFORGEN)

avium Category:Cherries Category:Flora of Europe Category:Flora of North Africa Category:Flora of Western Asia Category:Plants described in 1753 Category:Botanical taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Category:Trees of humid continental climate Category:Trees of Mediterranean climate Category:Trees of mild maritime climate Category:Garden plants of Asia Category:Garden plants of Europe Category:Ornamental trees Category:Fruit trees Category:Plants with extrafloral nectaries Category:Plants with edible fruit