Species

Prunus avium

Common Name(s)

sweet cherry

Family

Rosaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

NVS Species Code

PRUAVI

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Trees & Shrubs

Habitat

Terrestrial. Forest margins, roadsides, scrub, hedgerows

Features

Deciduous suckering spreading tree, 5~12m high when mature, not armed; trunk tall. Leaf petiole 12~60mm long, glabrous; blade reasonably thin, usu. obovate to broadly elliptic, sometimes narrowly obovate or orbicular, 40~130 x 30~60mm, acute to short-acuminate at apex, obtuse at base, glabrous or glabrate above, tomentose below when yong, soon glabrous, 1~2-serrate with teeth obtuse or subacute; stipules acuminate, deciduous. Flowers in umbel-like clusters of 2~4, on very short shoots, unfragrant, pendent; pedicels 25~50mm long, green and glabrous. Hypanthium urceolate; sepals triangular, 3~5mm long, blunt, glabrous, usu. tinged purplish, soon becoming strongly reflexed. Petals usu. 5 but sometimes many in double flowers, 11~19 x 8~17mm, broadly elliptic-oblong or elliptic-obovate, shallowly emarginate, white. Stamens approx. = petals; filaments whitish. Fruit 8~17mm diam., globose or nearly so, glabrous, dark red, occasionally remaining pinkish-red, usu. sweet, sometimes bitter; stone smooth. (-Webb et. al., 1988)

Similar Taxa

A deciduous, suckering, spreading tree 5-12m when mature; flowers in clusters of 2-4 on short shoots; white petals; dark red fruit 8-17mm diameter (Webb et al., 1988).

Flowering

September, October, November

Flower Colours

White

Fruiting

November to February

Year Naturalised

1872

Origin

Europe

Reason For Introduction
Agricultural

Life Cycle Comments
Perennial. Although it can fom fairly dense stands, these result from seedlings rather than from suckers.

Dispersal
Seeds dispersed by birds (Atkinson 1997).

This page last updated on 18 Jan 2010