Photo: Unknown — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Survives zone 5 through 8
Harvest calendar
Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.
The small black fruit is thin-fleshed and bitter, rarely eaten fresh — instead the fragrant kernels inside the stones are dried and ground into mahlab, a spice used in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean breads, cookies, and pastries. ⚠ Kernels/pits cyanogenic.
Spread warning. Naturalized and locally invasive in parts of the northeastern and midwestern United States, spreading along fencerows, disturbed woods, and old fields.
- Hardiness
- Zone 5–8
- Habit
- Tree
- Edible part
- Seed
- Ripens
- Summer–autumn
- Mature size
- Small tree 6–10 m; also the standard cherry rootstock
- Light
- Full sun to partial
- Soil pH
- 6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)
- Environment
- Mediterranean
- Native range
- Central and southern Europe (Poland to Portugal), the Caucasus, Turkey and Western Asia east to Pakistan, and North Africa
- Status
- Rootstock
- Years to fruit
- 2–4 yrs
- Growth speed
- Fast growth rate
- Spacing
- 500 cm (197 in) apart — about 25 m² (269 sq ft) per plant
- Leaf shape
- Broadly ovate to rounded, 2.5–7 cm long, with a blunt tip, finely gland-tipped teeth along the margin, and a glossy dark green upper surface.
- Root system
- Shallow-rooted, prone to suckering when roots are disturbed.
- Fruit description
- Small (6–10 mm), egg-shaped black drupes with thin, leathery, bitter-tasting flesh and a single large stone.
- Propagation
- Seed needs 2–3 months of cold stratification and is slow to germinate (up to 18 months); also increased by half-ripe heel cuttings in midsummer or softwood cuttings in spring/early summer. Commercially it is propagated by seed or clonal selection for use as a cherry rootstock.
- Pollination
- Hermaphrodite, insect-pollinated flowers — self-fertility isn't specifically documented for this species
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
Fertilizing. Thrives in poor to average, well-drained soil — including dry, sandy, or calcareous ground with some lime — and should be kept out of rich soil, which produces rank, ungainly growth.
How it spreads. Shallow-rooted and suckers readily if roots are disturbed.
Growing tips. Valued as a drought- and frost-tolerant rootstock for grafted sweet and sour cherry cultivars, especially on light, dry, calcareous soils; highly susceptible to black knot fungus.
Companion planting. As the standard rootstock beneath grafted sweet and sour cherries, it shares susceptibility to black knot (Apiosporina morbosa) with other Prunus species growing nearby.
Grow journal
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