Bird cherries
Bird cherry © Nova
Bird cherry - Prunus padus
Virginian bird cherry - Prunus virginiana
Bird cherry: tree 10–20m tall, the bark has an unpleasant, acrid scent. Flowers 15mm across, ripe fruit 6–8mm long and black.
Virginian bird cherry: tree up to 5m tall and conical in shape, the bark has no unpleasant smell. Flowers 10mm across, ripe fruit 10mm, red or black.
ID check
- Leaves are alternate in arrangement, not divided into leaflets and are deciduous.
- Leaves are toothed.
- Twigs are not thorny.
- Flowers and fruits are in an elongated spike.
- Flowers are less than 10mm in diameter. The petals are broadly oval.
- Fruits are juicy and smooth at the apex.
Description
Bird cherry tree © GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
Tree
Small trees but capable of reaching 20m tall.
Bark
Brown or grey and may be unpleasant-smelling.
Leaves
Slightly leathery. The edges have fine, slender teeth and the apex has a short, slender tip. They are hairless or have whitish hairs on the underside of the leaf either side of the central vein - sometimes only as tufts where veins join.
Flower spikes
They are 7–15cm long, cylinder-shaped and with leaves at the base of the spike.
Flowers
White and fragrant.
Styles
There are 2 or more.
Ripe fruit
They are 6–10mm across, red or black and very astringent. Sepals are usually present on the ripe fruit. There are 2 or more seeds.
Images
Bird cherry leaf.
© USDA Forest Service
Bird cherry flower.
© Nova, Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License
Bird cherry tree.
© GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2Diagrams
These explain some of the important tree and plant parts mentioned on these factsheets.
Flower
Leaf parts
