Bird Cherry - Prunus padus

Tree or shrub to 17 metres, bark foetid, brown and peeling. Leaves elliptical, pointed and toothed. Flowers white, 10 to 16 mm, in long slender pendent racemes, heavily scented. Fruit small, shiny, black 6 to 8 mm, globose and bitter tasting.

Photograph of flowers

Roadsides, parks, gardens, plantation woodlands

May to June.

Deciduous.

Occasional throughout Britain, but rare in the south of England.

Scarce in Leicestershire and Rutland and probably not present as a native species except possibly in Grace Dieu Wood (Jeeves, 2011).  Occasionally planted.

In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 4 of the 617 tetrads.