Description

Leaves: Alternate; simple; serrate; 3/4" to 1-1/2" long; deciduous; almost round; curved along main-vein; glabrous; bright green; may have two glands on the petiole just below the leaf blade. Petiole 1/2" to 1" long.

Twigs/buds: Twigs medium texture, tan to brown, with prominent lenticels. Buds scaly, tan to brown like twig.

Flowers/fruit: Flowers white, 5-petalled, fragrant, 1/3" to 3/4" wide, in small clusters.  Fruit a small (1/4" to 1/3" diameter) round drupe, first green, then bright red, and finally maturing purple to black; juicy; bitter.

Bark: Shiny and layered with prominent horizontal ridges or lenticels.

Wood: Little information available; somewhat important where native. Hard; used for cabinets and organ pipes.

General: Small tree native to central and southern Europe, western and central Asia, and northern Africa; long cultivated around the world. Intermediate shade tolerance.

Landscape Use: Never planted with its own top in Utah, but commonly used as a rootstock for sweet and sour cherries. It is mentioned here because it has escaped cultivation and can be fairly commonly found growing in Utah's valleys where water is present. It is a small tree to large shrub. Presumably the seed source is fruit produced on sprouts growing from below sour and sweet cherry grafts. Zones 3-9.

Cultivars: "Albomarginata', 'Bommii', 'Globosa', 'Pendula', 'Xanthocarpa'.

Characteristics