Cherry

A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet Prunus avium and the sour Prunus cerasus. The name 'cherry' also refers to the cherry tree and its wood, and is sometimes applied to almonds and visually similar flowering trees in the genus Prunus, as in "ornamental cherry" or "cherry blossom". Wild cherry may refer to any of the cherry species growing outside cultivation, although Prunus avium is often referred to specifically by the name "wild cherry" in the British Isles. Prunus subg. Cerasus Prunus subg. Cerasus contains species that are typically called cherries. They are known as true cherries and distinguished by having a single winter bud per axil, by having the flowers in small corymbs or umbels of several together (occasionally solitary, e.g. P. serrula; some species with short racemes, e.g. P. maacki), and by having smooth fruit with no obvious groove. Examples of true cherries are: Prunus apetala (Siebold & Zucc.) Franch. & Sav. – clove cherry Prunus avium (L.) L. – sweet cherry, wild cherry, mazzard or gean Prunus campanulata Maxim. – Taiwan cherry, Formosan cherry or bell-flowered cherry Prunus canescens Bois. – grey-leaf cherry Prunus cerasus L. – sour cherry Prunus emarginata (Douglas ex Hook.) Walp. – Oregon cherry or bitter cherry Prunus fruticosa Pall. – European dwarf cherry, dwarf cherry, Mongolian cherry or steppe cherry Prunus incisa Thunb. – Fuji cherry Prunus jamasakura Siebold ex Koidz. – Japanese mountain cherry or Japanese hill cherry Prunus leveilleana (Koidz.) Koehne – Korean mountain cherry Prunus maackii Rupr. – Manchurian cherry or Amur chokecherry Prunus mahaleb L. – Saint Lucie cherry, rock cherry, perfumed cherry or mahaleb cherry Prunus maximowiczii Rupr. – Miyama cherry or Korean cherry Prunus nipponica Matsum. – Takane cherry, peak cherry or Japanese alpine cherry Prunus pensylvanica L.f. – pin cherry, fire cherry, or wild red cherry Prunus pseudocerasus Lindl.