Cherry Plum - Prunus cerasifera

Alternative names
Myrobalan Plum
Description

A spreading open-crowned small tree to 8 metres. Leaves shiny and hairless above, hairy beneath. Flowers white, 5 parted usually solitary15 to 20 mm appearing slightly before the leaves. Fruit 1 to 5 in a bunch, globular, 2cm, glossy pale green, finally yellow or red, slightly grooved.

A purple-leaved form (var. pissardii, 'Nigra' or 'Atropurpurea') is commonly planted as a street tree and in parks and gardens; it has pale pink to purplish flowers.

Similar Species

Cherry Plum has larger and more rounded leaves than Blackthorn and generally flowers earlier. It usually lacks the spines found on Blackthorn.

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

Green 1st year stems, no (visible) thorns, flowers with long pedicels at the same time as or before the leaves. It usually flowers a couple of weeks earlier than Blackthorn, P. spinosa.

Prunus domestica can be similar, but has a flattened stone.  P cerasifera stones are only slightly flattened.

Recording advice

Photograph of shoot and or fruit/fruit-stone.  It is not possible to verify this from a photo of the flowers alone

Habitat

Hedgerows and woodland.

When to see it

Flowers February to March.

Life History

Deciduous tree or shrub.

UK Status

Occasional but widespread in most of Britain, often naturalised as it is sometimes used in hedging or found as a garden plant.

VC55 Status

Not common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 17 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Cherry Plum
Species group:
Trees, Shrubs & Climbers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Rosales
Family:
Rosaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
23
First record:
11/07/2011 (Cranfield, John)
Last record:
27/01/2024 (Cunningham, Sally)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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