Wild Cherry - Prunus avium
Tree from 10 to 25 metres; bark reddish brown, peeling in thin strips and paper like. Leaves oblong, toothed, dull green above, often reddish beneath. Flowers white, 15 to 25 mm in clusters of 2 to 6, borne with the leaves. Fruit rounded and fleshy, usually dark red 9 to 12 mm.
Some ornamental cherries in parks and gardens have similar flowers and bark
Flowers white, in clusters. Pink-flowered cherries are planted hybrids, cultivars or non-native species
Photograph of flowers
Woods, hedgerows and close to habitation.
April and May.
Deciduous.
Widespread in England and Wales, scarcer in Scotland.
Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 123 of the 617 tetrads.
Saharima Roenisch
Evington Park
07 April 2017
David Gould
Aylestone Meadows
28 April 2017
David Nicholls
Rutland Water
22 March 2012
Graham Calow
Sapcote, near Granitethorpe Quarry
25 March 2020
reflexed sepals
Barbara Cooper
Long Clawson
13 July 2015
David Nicholls
Bagworth Heath Woods
12 January 2012
David Nicholls
Bagworth Heath Woods
12 January 2012
David Nicholls
Ulverscroft NR
02 August 2018
extrafloral nectaries
Leicestershire & Rutland Map
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MAP KEY:
Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
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Species profile
- Common names
- Wild Cherry, Gean
- Species group:
- Trees, Shrubs & Climbers
- Kingdom:
- Plantae
- Order:
- Rosales
- Family:
- Rosaceae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 220
- First record:
- 11/05/1992 (John Mousley;Steve Grover)
- Last record:
- 13/08/2025 (Nicholas Humphreys)
Total records by month
% of records within its species group
10km squares with records
The latest images and records displayed below include those awaiting verification checks so we cannot guarantee that every identification is correct. Once accepted, the record displays a green tick.
In the Latest Records section, click on the header to sort A-Z, and again to sort Z-A. Use the header boxes to filter the list.
Latest images
Latest records
Saharima Roenisch
Sarah's Wood
06 April 2017
Barbara Cooper
Long Clawson
06 April 2019
Graham Calow
Near Croft Road, Cosby
05 February 2016
long pedicel - reflexed sepals
stepgray4
Holwell Reserves
24 April 2021
Reflexed sepals
Melinda Bell
Ibstock,Sence valley
26 June 2019
Groby John
Groby, Dowry Furlong
19 May 2022
Graham Calow
Sapcote, Land behind William Spencer Avenue
21 May 2022
Ron.stevens
Broughton Astley Coventry Road
19 May 2016
Alan Semper
Melton Country Park
01 November 2011
stepgray4
Holwell Reserves
24 April 2021
stepgray4
Stoke Dry Wood
01 May 2021
stepgray4
Woodland along A6006, Wymeswold
05 May 2021
Steve Mathers
West Beacon Fields
07 November 2016
Saharima Roenisch
Leicester Victoria Park
25 June 2020
Cherry Aphid
Cherry Aphid (Myzus cerasi) Uses Cherry species as its primary host. The aphid activity causes the leaves to curl and produce ant-attended leaf nests. The adult aptera that lives in the leaf nest. It is a small to medium sized aphid, shiny, very dark brown to black with a sclerotized dorsum.
Phyllonorycter cerasicolella
The larva of the moth Phyllonorycter cerasicolella mines the leaves of Wild Cherry and other Cherry species. The mine is underside, between veins, often causing leaf to arch.
Apple Leaf Miner
The larva of the moth Lyonetia clerkella produces a leafmine on a number of species, especially Cherry, Apple, Rowan, Hawthorn, Blackthorn and other trees and shrubs in the Rosaceae family. It is also commonly found on Birch. The mine is long smoothly curved gallery with frass in a central line; older mines look whitish. The larva is long and slender. It has a segmented body and 6 dark feet.