Species: Wild Cherry (Prunus avium)
Family: Roses (ROSACEAE)
Category: Flowering Plants
Location: SW
A. Flowering Plants
More extensive information on flowering plants can be found in a separate blog post.
B. Roses (ROSACEAE)
The Rose family gives us many of our most commercially important fruits, such as the Prunus species. They have alternate leaves and 5-petalled flowers.
C. Wild Cherry (Prunus avium)
The Wild Cherry is a widespread deciduous tree that can grow to 25 metres in height. Its leaves are oblong and toothed. Its bark is often papery, with trunks that have distinctive horizontal bands. It bears clusters of delicate white flowers in April, often providing ethereal displays as Spring gets under way. The cherry fruits, which are bright red to purple in mid-summer, are edible but can range in taste from bitter to sweet. Each fruit contains a hard stone that is a seed. From these, new cherry trees can grow.
The Wild Cherry in the Cemetery is tucked right into the south-west corner and had been missed during several botanical surveys. Recently, it had been thought to be dead and all but one limb had been felled. The remaining limb has sprung into life, providing a lovely display of blossom in April 2022.
Wild Cherries are an important early source of nectar and pollen for bees and other pollinators such as hoverflies. The foliage is eaten by moth caterpillars and Brimstone caterpillars. The cherries the tree produces later in the season are eaten by Blackbirds, Mistle Thrushes and Song Thrushes.
Images
Wild Cherry
Wild Cherry trees bear clusters of delicate white flowers in April, often providing ethereal displays as Spring gets under way.
Wild Cherry
The bark of Wild Cherry trees are papery, with trunks that have distinctive horizontal bands.
