Prunus avium Seeds | Wild Sweet Cherry
LATIN NAME: Prunus avium
COMMON NAME: Wild Sweet Cherry
Plant Profile
Wild Sweet Cherry is the woodland ancestor of the orchard cherry, a tall tree of fifteen to twenty-five metres with a straight trunk, coppery young bark that peels in horizontal strips, and white blossom that opens with the first warm days of April. The fruit is small, dark red and sweet, and the birds take it before it is fully ripe. The bark of young wood is dark and banded with horizontal lenticels, one of the most reliable winter features in a thicket.
It is native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia, and it grows in woodlands on deep, fertile, well-drained soil, often at the edge of a clearing where light reaches the lower branches. In Britain it is treated as an indicator of ancient woodland, since it rarely colonises new sites.
Science & Biotechnology
Prunus avium is a tetraploid relative of the diploid sour cherry, and that difference is why the two do not cross readily. It is self-incompatible, with a gametophytic system controlled by a single locus, and orchards must plant compatible cultivars in alternating rows to set fruit.
The species is the main rootstock source for sweet cherries worldwide, either as seedling mazzard for vigour or through clonal selections that control size. Research interest has shifted to dwarfing rootstocks, since the traditional mazzard makes a tree too large for modern orchards and too slow to crop.
Uses & Benefits
Fruit, blossom and timber. The wood is warm, close-grained and does not warp readily, and it has been used for furniture, instrument cases and smoking pipes for centuries. The blossom is one of the best early nectar sources for bees in a hedgerow landscape.
In the garden it is grown as a specimen or a small orchard tree, and it needs a pollinator nearby unless a self-fertile cultivar is chosen. The kernel inside the stone contains cyanogenic glycosides and must never be eaten, though it is used, after processing, in some traditional preparations. The wood is also prized by turners, who value its tight grain and the way it takes a polish.
Growing from Seed
The seed needs both warmth and cold. Clean the stones, soak them for two days, then stratify in damp sand at three to five degrees for twelve to sixteen weeks. Sow in spring, one stone per deep pot, and expect germination over four to eight weeks. Throw away any stone that floats, since it is empty.
Seedlings are variable and will not match the parent, which is half the fun if you are looking for a new garden tree and half the frustration if you wanted a named cultivar. Grow them on for three years before planting out, and protect the young trunk from rabbits, which find cherry bark irresistible.
Our Take
A tree that gives blossom, fruit and some of the finest timber in Europe, and asks only for lime-rich soil and a little patience with the stones.
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