Chinese bush cherry

Photo: (c) Jane Charlen, some rights reserved (CC BY) — CC BY 4.0 · source

Survives zone 4 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Fruit is small and sour — described as acid but not unpalatable to very sour depending on the selection — and is eaten raw or, more often, cooked into preserves. ⚠ Kernels/pits cyanogenic.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer–autumn

Mature size

Shrub 1–1.5 m; excellent in containers

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Native to northern China, concentrated in the Zhongtiao and Taihang mountains of Shanxi and the Daqing and Manhan mountains and Horqin Grassland of Inner Mongolia.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

Moderate

Spacing

150 cm (59 in) apart — about 2.3 m² (24 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, obovate to elliptic, 2–5 cm, finely toothed and slightly hairy beneath, crowded on short shrubby stems.

Root system

Shallow and fibrous, suckering modestly from the crown; grown on its own roots rather than grafted, so what you plant is what you get. Sits happily on sandy ground and resents waterlogging.

Fruit description

Small drupe up to about 13 mm across with a single large seed.

Propagation

By seed (2–3 months cold stratification, sometimes taking up to 18 months to germinate), half-ripe cuttings in summer, softwood cuttings in spring, or layering.

Pollination

Not specifically documented, but likely needs a second plant for reliable fruit set by analogy with the closely related Nanking cherry (P. tomentosa), which is not self-fertile

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.