Photo: Unknown — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Survives zone 7 through 9
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
Small, shiny scarlet cherries are astringent and rarely eaten fresh — the tree is grown almost entirely for its early, bell-shaped, deep-pink blossom rather than for its fruit. ⚠ Kernels/pits cyanogenic.
Spread warning. Regulated as an invasive species in New Zealand's Northland Region, where sale, distribution, and propagation are prohibited.
- Hardiness
- Zone 7–9
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Fruit
- Ripens
- Summer–autumn
- Mature size
- Small tree 5–8 m
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)
- Environment
- Subtropical
- Native range
- Native to Taiwan, southern China, and Vietnam.
- Status
- Ornamental
- Years to fruit
- 2–4 yrs
- Growth speed
- fast
- Spacing
- 700 cm (276 in) apart — about 49 m² (527 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Ovate to slightly obovate with a slender point and wedge-shaped base, finely and evenly serrated, bright green in spring aging to dark green then bronze in autumn.
- Root system
- Worth knowing that in cultivation this is usually the rootstock's root system, not the species' — most Prunus are sold grafted, and vigour, suckering and soil tolerance follow the stock rather than the top. On its own roots the species is shallow-rooted, with the bulk in the top 40–60 cm spreading well beyond the canopy, so it dislikes cultivation underneath and competes badly with grass.
- Fruit description
- Small ovoid drupe about 10–11 mm across, glossy scarlet, with one large seed; astringent unless processed.
- Propagation
- Grown from seed after 2–3 months of combined warm-then-cold stratification, or grafted for named flowering cultivars.
- Pollination
- Hermaphrodite, insect-pollinated flowers
The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.
Growing guide
How it spreads. Bird-dispersed seed allows it to naturalize outside cultivation.
Growing tips. One of the earliest cherries to bloom, often flowering in January-February, which puts its blossom at high risk from late cold snaps; needs comparatively few chill hours and tolerates subtropical warmth better than most flowering cherries; fast-growing.
Grow journal
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