A mature flowering Wild Cherry is unmistakable along a woodland edge in early spring. This magnificent broadleaf, also called the Gean or Mazzard, offers landscape value, food for wildlife and highly prized timber. It does not form pure stands except as clonal groups, more often growing as single specimens along woodland rides and edges.
Native to Europe, including Britain and Ireland, and to parts of western Asia and limited Mediterranean coastal regions of North Africa. Widespread in Britain except on uplands and far north of Scotland, less widespread in western Ireland.
Monoecious, with hermaphrodite flowers, generally self-incompatible. Insect-pollinated, producing small (20mm) drupes (cherry fruit) containing a single seed, ingested and distributed by birds and mammals in their droppings. Also reproduces clonally by suckering. A relatively short-lived (100–150 years) pioneer species.
Tall (30m or more), with a slender, usually straight, strongly dominant trunk. Bark distinctive red-brown and polished, with dark horizontal lenticel lines, sometimes peeling in strips and exuding amber resin when damaged. Branches in annual whorls. Leaves ovate to oval, large (12cm), unfurling bronze-green then mid-dark green, coarsely single-toothed, with a pair of basal glands. Flowers bright white with the spring foliage (April-May). Fruit a globose 'cherry', green and bitter ripening dark red and juicy. Bird Cherry differs: smaller, dull acrid bark, racemed flowers, small black fruit.
Seed source matters for quality forest trees (avoid orchard origin for timber). Give plenty of space and sunlight, as it is a light-demanding pioneer soon outcompeted by longer-lived species, with shelter for good form. Prune only in early summer (when silver leaf and bacterial canker are less prevalent), gradually removing lower whorls for timber. Ornamental cultivars include 'Decumana' and 'Plena'; orchards use self-fertile cultivars such as 'Lapins', 'Stella' and 'Sunburst', usually on dwarf rootstocks. Foliage is poisonous to horses.
Valuable for pollinating insects in spring, while its fruit sustains birds and mammals in autumn. Badgers (Meles meles) are particularly fond of cherry fruit, with obvious quantities of its seed visible in their scats at that time of year.
Prone to bacterial canker and several other diseases. Cherry fly and aphids can be a nuisance. Foliage palatable to deer (but bark is less prone than many broadleaves to bark-stripping damage from Grey Squirrels Sciurus carolinensis).
Its timber is easy to work, stable once dried, with very attractive figure rich with warm honey-brown character. It is popular for turning and in furniture-making, especially fine cabinets, and makes very attractive flooring.
