Prunus Avium
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 Europe, Anatolia, Maghreb, and Western Asia, from the British Isles south to Morocco and Tunisia.
Mature trees can grow to 30m and live for up to 60 years. The shiny bark is a deep reddish-brown with prominent cream-coloured horizontal lines called lenticels. The second part of its botanical name – avium – refers to birds which play a role in the tree’s propagation by eating the cherries and dispersing the seed. In Scotland, cherry is sometimes referred to as ‘gean’.
Leaves are ovals, green and toothed with pointed tips, measuring 6–15cm with two red glands on the stalk at the leaf base. They fade to orange and deep crimson in autumn.
Cherry trees are hermaphrodite, meaning the male and female reproductive parts are found in the same flower. Flowers, measuring 8–15mm across appear in April and are white and cup-shaped, with five petals. They hang in clusters of two to six.
After pollination by insects, the flowers develop into globular, hairless, deep-red cherries.