Wild Cherry - Prunus avium

Tree from 10 to 25 metres; bark reddish brown, peeling in thin strips and paper like. Leaves oblong, toothed, dull green above, often reddish beneath. Flowers white, 15 to 25 mm in clusters of 2 to 6, borne with the leaves. Fruit rounded and fleshy, usually dark red 9 to 12 mm.

Some ornamental cherries in parks and gardens have similar flowers and bark

Flowers white, in clusters.  Pink-flowered cherries are planted hybrids, cultivars or non-native species

Photograph of flowers

Woods, hedgerows and close to habitation.

April and May.

Deciduous.

Widespread in England and Wales, scarcer in Scotland.

Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 123 of the 617 tetrads.