St Lucie cherries
St Lucie cherry © Robert Vidéki, Doronicum Kft., Bugwood.org
St Lucie cherry - Prunus mahaleb
Pin cherry - Prunus pensylvanica
ID check
- Flowers on hairless stalks, in clusters of 10 or fewer.
- Leaf margins with blunt or rounded teeth, often tipped with a claw-like gland.
- Leaf stalk hairless.
- Flowers arranged along a short stem, not all arising from a central point.
- Flowers up to 20mm across on stalks up to 15mm long.
- Fruit up to 10mm long.
Description
St Lucie cherry tree © Robert Vidéki, Doronicum Kft. Bugwood.org
St Lucie cherry: leaves with an abruptly pointed tip, downy on the underside. Ripe fruit 8–10mm long, ovoid and glossy black.
Pin cherry: leaves with a long, tapering tip, hairless. Ripe fruit 6mm long, globe-like and red.
Tree
Small, spreading trees.
Leaves
Broadly oval to rounded. Margins have small, rounded teeth with short tips.
Flowers
1–6 in stalked, branched clusters. Flowers 10–20mm across, white, fragrant.
Ripe fruit
Ripe fruit bitter.
Notes
Weeping varieties are sometimes planted.
Images
St Lucie cherry flowers.
© Jean Tosti, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License
St Lucie cherry tree.
© Robert Vidéki, Doronicum Kft., Bugwood.org
St Lucie cherry fruit.
© Robert Vidéki, Doronicum Kft., Bugwood.orgDiagrams
These explain some of the important tree and plant parts mentioned on these factsheets.
Flower
Leaf parts
